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HISTORY 



OP THE 



TERRITORY OF WISCOMN, 



Fl^OM 1836 TO 1848. 



PRECEDED BY AN ACCOUNT OF SOME EVENTS DURING THE 

PERIOD IN WHICH IT WAS UNDER THE DOMINION 

OF KINGS, STATES OR OTHER TERRITORIES, 

PREVIOUS TO THE YEAR 1836. 



COMPILED BY 



!' 



MOSES M. STRONG, A. M. 



PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE. 







i/\ 



MADISON, WIS.: 

DEMOCRAT PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS. 
1885. 



PREFACE. 



In the winter of 1870, the compiler of this book was in- 
vited to deliver the annual address before the State Histor- 
ical Society, and the members of the legislature. Having 
accepted the invitation, he took as his theme " Territorial 
Legislation of Wisconsin/' 

The address was a brief condensation of what had occur- 
red in the legislative halls during the territorial period of 
twelve years. 

This lae^p' epitome of the history of Territorial Legislation, 
short and fragmentary as it was from the necessities of the 
occasion, was received with unexpected favor. The author 
was urged by many who heard it, among whom were those 
for whose judgment he felt the utmost deference, to enlarge 
the work of which the address was an abridgment, and to 
publish a more complete history of the subject to which it 
related. 

These flattering solicitations induced the author to make 
the experiment, although with great hesitation and very 
serious doubts as to his ability to compile a work which 
would not disappoint the too generous confidence of his 
friends. The result is the book now presented to the public. 

It seemed to the compiler that some account of the pre- 
territorial period, while the country within the present 
restricted boundaries of Wisconsin was under the dominion 
of the successive kings, states and territories, which at 
different epochs had jurisdiction over it, was a suitable 
introduction to the history of the territory proper, which 

Hence the first chapter, of about twelve pages, contains 
the briefest possible account of the early explorations of 
" Florida '' and " Louisiana," under which names the whole 
country from the Gulf of Mexico to Newfoundland was 
claimed successively by Spain, France and Great Britain, 
during a period of more than two hundred and fifty years 
in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
was the principal object of the work. 

This naturally led to a notice of the wars in the eigh- 



G PREFACE. 

teenth century with the Fox Indians on the Fox and Wis- 
consin rivers; and in immediate connection with them a. 
sketch of the Langlade family — the first permanent settlers 
in Wisconsin, whose descendants have remained upon its. 
soil. 

The explorations of Jonathan Carver in 17G6-7, are, it is 
thought, appropriately referred to; as well as the progress of 
settlements in the northwest, and the development of their 
social relations. 

To have omitted a notice of the ancient settlements at 
Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, and the less numerous and 
less important ones at Chequamegon, Portage and Milwau- 
kee, would, it is believed, have been inexcusable. 

The migration of semi-civilized Indians to Wisconsin in 
the third and fourth decades of this century seemed to de- 
mand notice. 

The history of the settlement of the lead mines nearly 
fifteen years before the organization of Wisconsin Territory, 
and the consequent Winnebago war, followed five years 
later by the Black Hawk war, occupy nearly forty pages of 
the preliminary history. These are succeeded by nearly one 
hundred pages, devoted to an account of civil government, 
social development, legislation and cognate matters, which 
complete the pre-territorial history and bring the compila- 
tion down to the period when the history of Wisconsin Ter- 
ritory properly commences. 

Although the principal design of the work is to present a 
history of Territorial Legislation, in the execution of which 
design a chapter is devoted to the events of each year in 
chronological order, the design has been departed from so 
far as to incorporate into each chapter the most important 
of the contemporaneous events of the period to which it 
relates, although they may have no direct connection with 
.legislation. 

History and story are the same word differently written. 
And the compiler of this book desires to say that his com- 
pilation consists almost entirely of the story of the events 
to which it relates, that had been told or written by others. 
He disclaims all pretentions to originality, which implies 
rather the creation than the repetition of a story. He 
claims credit — if it be any credit — only for the order of 
the compilation, and of putting the words, deeds and writ- 
ings of others relating to territorial and ante-territorial 



PREFACE. 7 

times into such convenient form that they may be read with- 
out resort to the numerous sources of information from 
which they have been derived. 

If the attractions of rhetoric, or the interest of sensational 
description are expected to be found, the reader will be dis- 
appointed, and even the opinions of the compiler, in respect 
to the events v/hich are recorded, will be looked for in vain, 
and are not permitted to affect in any manner the statement 
of facts presented. 

The compilation being made so largely from the writings 
of others, it would be next to impossible, either in the text 
or by notes, to give the credit which is justly due, and it 
is hoped that any imputation of plagiarism will be found 
undeserved in view of this acknowledgment. 

Very liberal extracts have been made from the history of 
General Smith and entire paragraphs used without altera- 
tion or change of a sentence or word. The collections of the 
State Historical Society have been drawn upon whenever 
they would aid in promoting the desired object. The graphic 
description of the surrender of Red Bird, in the eleventh 
chapter, is copied bodily from an article on the Winnebago 
war by Col. Thomas L. McKenney. Other extracts have 
been made from other writings, which it is not possible to 
specify in detail. 

The compiler wishes to say, in justice to himself, that the 
compilation now presented is his first attempt at anything 
of this kind. He is but little practiced in literary composi- 
tion, and is but too conscious of his inability to give such 
form to the materials he has been able to obtain, as to make 
them worthy of publication. The work, however, is now 
laid before the public, whose favorable consideration of it is 
invoked, while no complaint will be made of fair criticism 
founded upon a knowledge of its contents. It has been 
undertaken for the reasons already stated, and because the 
author felt a considerable degree of obligation resting upon 
him to contribute whatever might be in his power, to the 
preservation of the history of those events with which he 
was contemporary, and which in a few years will have 
passed into oblivion. 

Moses M. Strong. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF "FLORIDA AND '• LOUISIANA " — 1512 TO 1719. 

Gen. W. R. Smith's history — Juan Ponce de l^eon — Diego Miruelo — Narvaez — De Soto — 
Cham;)Iain — Le Caron — Charter of New France — First Jesuit missions — Brebeuf, 
Daniel & Zalleraand — Nicollet, the first to visit Wisconsin — Raynibault and Jogues — 
Dequerre — Fur- traders in 1634 — Drocoux — Mesnard — AUouez and his grand inter- 
tribal Council at Ciiegoiemegon — Dablon and Marquette — Perot, his visit to Green 
Bay and Chicago — Mission of St. Francis Xavier establislied at Green Bay — French 
take formal possession at St. Mary's — The ero':s borne by Allouez and Dablon to the 
Milwaukee and Waukeslia rivers — Marquette and Joliet explore the Fox, Wisconsin 
and Mississippi rivers and return to Green Bay via Cliicago — Marquette, his sickness 
and deatli — Ld Salle erects fort at Frontenac, builds the Griffin, anchors at Green Bay, 
goes to tlie Illinois, begins to build Fort Crevecoeur, returns to Frontenac, and back to 
the Illinois — Hennepin, witli Accau and Du Gay explores tlie Upper Mississippi, iua<ie 
prisoners, liberated, visited St. Autlumy, meet Du Lliut and his party, all reach Green 
Bay, Hennepin returns to Europe and dies — La Salle goes to Mackinaw and returns to 
Crevecoeur, dessends tlie Mississippi to its moutli, and takes possession of all the country 
for France, returns to France, attemjjts to colonize Louisiana — War between England 
and France — Peace of Ryswick — Iberville and Cliateaumoraud — Iberville ascends the 
Mississippi — Le Sueur — he explores the St. Peter's river for minerals and winters 
there — Cadillac takes possession of Detroit — Kaskaskia — Peace of Utrecht — Bois- 
braint — Fort Ciiavtras, Caliokia and Prairie de Roclier — Artaguette — New Orleans — 
Renault. 

CHAPTER 11. 

WARS WITH FOX INDIANS — 1712 TO 17J6. 

The Foxes concentrate their bands on Fox River — De Louvigny's expeditian against the 
Foxes — His report to the council — Little Butte des Mortes — De Louvigny's death by 
sliipwreclc — Gov. Vaudreuil's letter of approbation — Bad faith of the Foxes — Peace- 
able efforts of tlie French — Indian council — De Lignery sent to destroy the Foxes — 
Troops commence march — Foxes escape — Expedition continues up Fox River — Burn 
villages and return — Lignery criticised — Taken prisoner — Friendly Indians attack 
the Foxes — Marin — His traffic on Fox and Wisconsin Rivers — Piratical exactions of 
the Foxes — Marin determines to drive them out — His stratagem — Foxes awaiting the 
boats — The attack — Village burned — The battle — Result — T.ietter of De Beauharnois 
— Du Buissoii attacks the Foxes — De Villers defeats and routes tlie Foxes — Surviving 
Foxes retire to the Wisconsin River — Marin again attacks them — They are driven 
across the Mississippi — Marin commands at Green Bay — Taken prisoner— Final ex- 
pulsion of Fo.Kes — Sacs and Foxes confederated — Sacs at Green Bay — Expulsion of 
the Sacs — Sacs at Sauk Prairie — Sacs remove to the Mississippi River — Sacs and 
Foxes at Mouth of Rock River. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE LANGLADE FAMILY— 1745 TO 1800. 

Biograpliy no j^art of history — Da Langlade's family— birth of Augustin — and Indian 
trader — married — children — Charles has a son — Augustin and family remove to 
Green Bay — his death — marriage of Charles — French War — Vaudreuil selects him 
to raise tlie Indian tribes, and lead them in the war — He raises 1500 — they march to 



10 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Fort Du Quesne — Braddock's defeat — The fight owing to the importunities of Charles 
De Langlade — De Beaujeu consents to order an attack — Casualties — De Langlade 
ordered to strike Fort Cumberland — At capture of Fort William Henry- Second in 
command at Mackinaw — At Ticonderoga — Again at Fort Du Quesne — French burn 
the fort and retire before Washington — At Fort Niagara — Battle of Quebec — Sur- 
render of Canada and discharge of De Langlade's troops and Indians — His hardships — 
His children— Takes active part for the British ia the Revolutionary War— Attends 
Indian Council— Goes to St. Josephs — Superintendent of Indian affairs at Green Bay — 
His death — Pierre Grignon, Sea. — Augustin Grignon's Recollections. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JONATHAN CARVER'S EXPLORATIONS — 1766 AND 1767. 

Treaty of Paris; cession of Louisiana — Captain Jonathan Carver — His birth— His mili- 
tary record — Sets out from Boston — At Mackinaw — Leaves Green Bay— Leaves 
Doty's island — At Portage — At Prairie du Sac — The deserted Fox village — La Prairie 
des Chiens — Traders stop at Yellow river- At Lake Pepin — Nicholas Pen-ot — Pre- 
historic tumuli — Makes a treaty between Dakotas and Chippewas — " Carver's Cave "— 
Leaves canoe and walks to Falls of St. Anthony — St. Francis River — Ascends the 
Minnesota River — Returns to the Mississippi- Grand Council — " Carver's Grant"— 
Doubts as to the validity of the deed — lu violation of the King's proclamation — Peti- 
tion presented to Congress — Adverse report — Another adverse report — " Murray 
Claim" — Private Land claims — Returns to Prairie du Chieu — Leaves Prairie du 
Chien and ascends the Chippewa River— On the St. Croix — Copper— Descends to Lake 
Superior — Reaches Grand Portage — Returns to Mackinaw and Boston. 



CHAPTER V. 

PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST, AND TRANSFER TO BRITISH 

JURISDICTION — ir0.j TO 1775. 

Digression — Progress of settlement in the Wabash country — PopiUation of Illinois county 

— Gist's settlement in the Youghiogeny — Washington sent to the Ohio River — Begin- 
ning of the French war — English forces withdrawn from the valley of the Ohio — 
Braddock's defeat — French power overthrown — Indian affection for the French — First 
settlements of French east of the Mississippi — Settlement of Upper Louisiana — 1721, 
Jesuit college — "American Bottom " — French Forts — Fort Massac — Fort Charters — 
1705 Great Britain svicceeds to France — De Villiers — St. Ange de Bellerive — Retires to 
St. Louis — E.-iodus of the French — Population of Illinois settlements — Capt. Sterling 

— British proclamation — Right of emigration — Equal rights guaranteed — M. St. Ange 
returns — Maj. Frazer — Col. Reid — Col. Wilkins — First Common Law Court — 1774 
Civil Law restored — " Quebec Bill " — Grants of land by Col. Wilkins — Settlements on 
the Monongahela — Pittsburgh — Gov. Dunmore encourages emigration — French set- 
tlers support the American cause — Detroit in 1763 — The Pontiac war — Grand couucU 
of Indian tribes — Capture and slaughter of English garrisons— Mackinaw surprised 
and captured by a game of ball — Green Bay abandoned — Detroit alone remains — 
Pontiac invests Detroit — Siege — Great distress of the English — Peace concluded with 
the Indian tribes — Ponti-ic killed — Peace did not bring settlements — Green Bay — 
Capt. Stirling takes command of the " Illinois Coimtry " — Indian tribes of the North- 
west mif rieudly to the Americans and allied to the British — Col . Geo. Rogers Clark 
sent from Virginia by Gov. Patrick Henry to reduce the British posts in the Northwest 

— Col Clark takes Kiiskaskia and captures the fort — French inhabitants declare for 
America, and secure submission at Caliokia — Vincennes declares allegiance to Vir- 
ginia—Jurisdiction of Virginia established in the Northwest — British capture Post 
Vincennes — Col. Clark recaptures it and sends the British to Virginia as prisoners — 
Capt. Helm captures a convoy of supplies — Virginia in the possession of the entire 
Northwest — Slow progress of settlement. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER VI. 

UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION — 1787 TO 1820. 

Ordinance of 1787— Slavery at Green Bay — British posts in Northwest not immediately 
surrendered — Indian wars — Harmar's defeat on the Maiimee — Successful and de- 
cisive campaign of Gen. Anthony Wayne — Preliminary articles of peace — Treaty of 
Greenville, "great and abiding peace document." — Dispute?, about the right to the free 
navigation of the Lower Mississippi — Free navigation secured by the treaty of Madrid 

— Spain cedes Louisiana to France — France cedes Louisiana to the United States — 
Indian Territory established — Genl. VV. H. Harrison appointed Governor — Treaty with 
the Sacs and Foxes ^ Boundaries of the ceded laud — Two treaties with Sacs and Foxes 

— Treaty with Sacs of Rock River — Black Hawk signs treaty — Fort Madison — Pike's 
expedition — Cession of site of Fort Snelling — Battle of Tippecanoe — Indians seek the 
aid of British allies — British incite Indian traders— Robert Diclcson and his Indian 
forces — Capture of Mackinaw — Fort Msigs- Col. Dickson and his Indians join the 
British at Detroit — Hull's surrender of D_^troit —Evacuation of Fort Dearborn and 
massacre of Capt. Heald and party — Fort at Prairie du Chien — Unsuccessful expedi- 
tion of Slaj. Campbell — Col. McKay places guns at Rock Island — P'ort Arra.strong 
commenced at Rock Island —John Shaw, trades between St. Louis and Prairie du Chien 

— Lead smelting at Galena by Indians — Steam Boat Navigation on the Mississippi — 
The first saw-mills in Wisconsin. 

CHAPTER VII. 

GREEN BAY — 1G34 TO 183G. 

Earliest abodes of civilization — Nicollet — Fur traders — Mesnard — Allouez — Mission of 
St. Francis Xavier — Fort — Tonti in command — Du Luth — Marquette and Joliet — 
Hennepin and Da Luth — Thirty barren years — De Louvigney — De Lignery — Capt. 
De Velie — Garrison withdrawn — Settlement of Augustin De Langlade — Arrival of 
Capt. Belfour and twenty men— Fort called " Edward Augustus " in cliarge of Lieut. 
Gorrell — Lieut. Gorrell abandons the post — Slow progress of the settlemeiit — .Jaques 
Porlier — Charles Reaume — John Lawe — Population 250 in 1S12 — Ogilvie, Gillaspie & 
Co.— Honesty of the Indian trade — Jacob Franks builds a mill — Indian agent and factor 

— Government saw-mill — Fort Howard located by Gen. Chas. Gratiot — In command 
of Col. Chanibei-s — Col. Smith removes troops to Camp Smith — Col. Pi nkney moves 
back to Fort Howard — Col. McNeill — Gen. Brady — Shantytown — Robert Irwin. Jr. — 
Daniel Whitney — Wm. Dickinson— H. S. Baird — J. D. Doty — Court House and Jail — 
Mission School and Rev. R. F. Cadel — Episcopal Cliurch incorporated — First News- 
paper — Indian agency under Maj. Brevoit — Catholic Church and scjiool — Father 
Richard — Shantytown absorbed by Navarino, Astor and Depere — Only eight American 
families — Character of population — Ebenezer Childs — John P. Arndt — Albert G. 
Ellis — J. D. Doty — Removes to Green Bay — Madison and Doty's island — His official 
positions — Is appointed Governor of Utah, where he dies — Morgan L. Martin. 

CAAPTER VIII. 

PRAIRIE DU CIIIEN — IGSO TO 183). 

Uncertainty of time of first settlement — Hennepin — Marquet and Joliet — First military 
post — Cardinelle — Ganier — French trading post — French military jjost — Carver — 
Gov. Sinclair's purchase — Michael Brisbois — His statement of the settlement — His 
bakery — He issued currencj- — Campbell appointed Indian a.arent — JIarriage customs 

— Joseph Rolette — Settlement before the war of 1812 — British meditate building a 
fort — U. S Government build Fort Shelby — McKay's expedition for recapture of the 
fort — Force consisted of 150 whites and 4.')0 Indians — Col. McKay reaches the to«Ti — 
Attack upon the boats — Investment of the garrison — Surrender demanded and re- 
fused—Hot shot — Capitulation — American troops retire down the river — Fruitless 
Indian pursuit — Capt. Pohlman in command — British evacuation — Fort Crawford 
erected — Col. Chambers in command — Tyranny of the officers — Charles Menard 



12. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

court-martialled — Joseph Rolette banished — New fort erected— John Shaw trades 
and builds a grist mill — James H. Lockwood — OlBcers and tradere — Origin of name 
of town — Farming — Habits of settlers — It was neutral ground — Indian trade — Cath- 
olic priest — Maj. Forsyth's visit — Col. Leavenworth and troops leave for St. Peters — 
Fort Snelling located — Troops occupy Fort Crawford — Private land claims — H. L. 
Dousman — Joseph M. Street — Thomas P. Burnett — Mackinaw county laid out — 
Brown and Crawford counties laid out — First officers of Brown county — First officers 
of Crawford county — First court in Brown county — Changes in office in Crawford 
county — 18^3, first court — 1824 — 1826 and 1830 — 1831. 

CHAPTER IX. 

CHEQUAMEGON — PORTAGE - MILWAUKEE. 

Chequamegon, the field of first missionary work — Portage — Its early settlement — Laurent 
Earth, first settler — Jean L'Ecuyer — Barth sells to Ca mpbell — Laurent Fily — Francis 
Roy — Pierre Pauquette employed by Joseph Rolette — Indian trade — Settlement did 
not increase — Erection of Fort Winnebago — Major Twiggs and his officers — Site of 
fort — Fort completed — Houses at Portage- Change of troops — Military road from 
Fort Howard to Fort Crawford — Manner of transporting goods up Fox River — Henry 
Merrill- Milwaukee — First mention in GorrelFs journal — English trader probably 
Goddard — La Frambois — Stanislaus Chappue— John B. Beaubien — Laurent Fily — 
Jaques Vieau — Solomon Juneau — James Kinzie — Hypolite Grignon — Newspaper 
notices — Juneau j^urchases land — Byron Kilbourn jjurchases west side of river — 
George H. Walker makes claim on south side of river and finally gets patent — Names 
of some early settlers — First public meetmg — Digression — Copper Mines of Lake 
Superior — Pre-historic implements. 

CHAPTER X. 

NEW YORK INDIANS — 1820 TO 183s). 

N. Y. Indians — Ogden Land Co. — Stockbridge and Brothertown Indians — Jedediah Morse 

— Eleazer Williams — He proposes emigration scheme — " South " jealous of free 
States — Calhoun sanctions a plan to set apart Wisconsin for Indians — War Depart- 
ment favors the emigration scheme — Dr. Morse at Green Bay — N. Y. Indians aided by 
Government in going to Green Bay — Williams arrives at Detroit — He learns the 
Menomonees had sold their land to U. S. —He retuins to New York — Treaty rejected 

— Renewed aid from War Departniert — Arrival at Green Bay — Treaty made — 
Validity of treaty denied — N. Y. Indians opposed to the treaty — War Department 
favors another visit to Green Bay — Reach Green Bay — New treaty made — Treaty ap- 
proved — N. Y. Indians emigrate — Opposition to treaty — Cass and McKiuney treaty — 
Senate amendment — Abortive attempt at reconciliation — Samuel C. Stambaugh — He 
visits Washington with Menomonees — Treaty made — Supplementary article — Con- 
tinued tiU next session — Treaty ratified with amendment — Two townships to Stock- 
bridges — One township to Brothertowns — Alteration of boundary — Senate amend- 
ment agreed to with modification — Conflict terminated — Williams abandons his 
schemes — Scheme of Ogden Land Co. abandoned — Area of freedom unabridged — 
N. Y. Indians emigrate to Wisconsin — Condition of six nations in Wisconsin — Brother- 
towns become citizens. 

CHAPTER XL 

THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR — 1822 TO 1828. 

Gen. Smith's history of Indian disturbances — Indian wars concomitants of settlements — 
Indians friendly to French settlers — Hostility to agricultural settlements — Winnebagos 
opposed to the occupancy of the Lead Mines— Mr. Shaw's visit to Fever river — De- 
scrii^tion of Indian smelting furnaces — First occupation of the Lead Blines — Increase 
of population —Hazel Green and New Diggings— Government agents — Early settle- 
ment of the Lead Mines — "Suckers" and "sucker-holes" — Galena was the objective 
point — Other po hits — Product of fii'st three years — Apprehensions of danger from 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 13 

WiDneba;?os — Tceaty at Prairie du Chien— Troops removed from Fort Crawford to 
Fort Snelling — Fears at Prairie du Chien of Indian outrages — Murder of Methode — 
Wa-man-doos-ga-ra-ka confesses the murder— False rumors — Red Bird — Winnebagos 
resolved on i-etaliation — Attempt to kill Mi-s. J. H. Lockwood — Murder of Gagnier and 
Lighteap— Capt. Lindsay and his two keel-boats — The two boats part company — 
Winnebagos concealed on an island — Description of the boats — Attack upon the boat 

— " O . H. Perry " — The second attack — The boat is grounded, hand-to-hand conflict — 
The boat afloat, and survivors escape — Casualties — Harmless attack upon the other 
boat — Slander contradicted — Alarm at Prairie du Chien — Military company organized 

— Preparations for defence — Col. Snelling notified, and comes down the river — Con- 
sternation at Galena and vicinit3' — Gov. Cass arrives at Prairie du Chien — He pro- 
ceeds to Galena — Lieut. Martin Thomas — Col. Snelling assumes command — Gov. 
Cass proceeds to St. Louis — Col. Henry Dodge chosen Commander of Volunteers — 
Col. Dodge scours both sides of the Wisconsin river — Maj. Wliistler arrives at the 
Portage — Winnebagos in a desperate plight — Red Bird surrendei'ed by the Winne- 
bagos — Red Bird's appearance — His dress — His calmness — Talk between the 
Winnebagos and Maj. Whistler — Red Bird ready to die — Prisoners sent to Fort 
Crawford — Volunteers discharged — Results — Winnebagos contemplated a general 
rising — Death of Red Bird — Otlier prisoners convicted and pardoned. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE BLACK HAWK WAR — 1831 AND 1833. 

Progress in the "Lead Mines " — Black Hawk's village — He crosses the Mississippi — 
Threatened disturbances in 1831 — Indians agree to remain west of the Mississippi 

— Black Hawk war ensued a year later — Alarm in the Lead mine Region — Col. Dodge 
meets the Winnebagos in council — His " talk " — Treacherous promises of the Winne- 
bagos — Beginning of the war in 1833 — Gen. Whiteside's command — Gen. Atkinson 
and the regulars — Black Hawk moves up Rock river — Troops at Dixon — Stillman's 
defeat — First blood shed in the war — Col. Dodge writes to Gen. Reynolds — Col. Dodge 
and his neighbors go on an expedition after the Indians — Inhabitants of the Lead Mines 
thoroughly alarmed — Forts erected — Indian mode of warfare — Indian Creek mas- 
sacre — Sarrender of female captives — Suspicious conduct of the Winnebagos^ 
Brave and decisive conduct of Col. Dodge — Captive Winnebago chiefs sent to Gratiot's 
Grove and held as hostages — Dodge's volunteers meet Galena volunteers at Gratiot's 
Grove — Five murders near Buffalo Grove — Henry Dodge; brief sketch of — March to 
Kirker's farm — Col. Dodge's address to the volunteers^ He, with his forces, joins the 
regulars at Dixon — He escorts Gen. Brady to Ottawa — He returns to his headquarters 

— Gen. Atkinson engages the Sioux and Menomonees as allies — CoL W. S. Hamilton 
commands the Sioux — Col. Stambaugh commands the Menomonees — Menomonees 
kill two fugitive Sacs — James Aubrey killed — Murders near Spafford's ford — "Apple" 
killed in his saddle — Col. Dodge pursues the savages and overtakes them at the Pecka- 
tonica — Battle of the Peckatonica — Official account — Names of those engaged — 
Arrival of Sioux — Three of Capt. Stephenson's men killed — Attack on Apple river 
fort — Black Hawk's account of it — Contest with Maj. Dement's Spy battalion — Black 
Hawk's account of the engagement — Murder at Sinsinawa mound — Number of set- 
tlers killed — Indians concentrated near Lake Koshkonong — Gen. Posey and Col. Dodge 
meet at Fort Hamilton and form left wing — Division of the army — The left wing 
marches to the First lake — Change of position — March to Fort Atkinson — Judge 
Charles Dunn shot by a sentinel — Ambush — Indians anxious to escape — Troops sent 
to Fort Winnebago for provisions, the return route via rapids of Rock River — Effective 
force — Fresh trail of Indians found — Hot piu"suit to the Four Lakes — Pursuit con- 
tinued to the Wisconsin River —- Battle of Wisconsin Heights — Casualties — Indians 
disappear — .\rmy re-united at Helena — Pursuit — Battle of the Bad Axe — Casualties 

— Flight of Black Hawk and Prophet to the Lemonweir — Capture and surrender of 
the fugitives — Gen. Scott and his forces — Victims of the cholera — Losses by the 
war — Roster of Col. Dodge's command — Black Hawk a prisoner — At Washington — 
At Fortress Monroe — Sent home — His death. 



14 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 1513 TO 1834. 

Claims of Dominion — Military authority — Ponce de Leon first Governor — 1537, De Soto 
Governor -- 1565, Melendez de Aviles, hereditary Governor — French claims of dominion 

— 10-27, Charter of 100 associates— 10(13, company of the West Indies — 1071, French 
claims of Sault St. Mary— 1082, Ld Salle claimed Louisiana for France — 1089 to 1097, 
Frontenac Governor — 1700, De CaUiers Governor-General — 1711, Louisiana an in- 
dependent government — DeMuys — Artaquette — 1712, Cadillac — 1714, Vaudreuil — 
1728. Beauharnois -- 1753, Gov. Dinwiddie claims dominion in the valley of the Missis- 
sippi — War between France and England — 1702-3, treaty of peace — Division of 
territory — Inhabitants of "Illinois county" acknowledge jurisdiction of U. S. and 
Virginia — County of Illinois established — The Revolution a barren period — Ordinance 
of 1787 — Boundaries — Population — Characteristics of ordinance — Articles of com- 
pact — First officers — ■ Creation of legislature — W. H. Harrison, delegate — His success- 
ors — 1789, Powers of Congress transferred to President — 1792, Amendment of 
ordinance — IS 0, Franlcing Privilege extended to delegates — Indiana Territory — 
Boundaries — Territorial government established — Vincennes the seat of government 
— 1802, act enabling Ohio to form state government —1803, admitted into the Union — 

— Population — 1805, Michigan Territory established — Ordinance of 1787 extended over 
it — Detroit the seat of government — 18( 9, Illinois Territory established — Boundaries 

— Powers — Kaskaskia the seat of government — Judicial circuits established — Act 
enabling IlHncis to form state government — North boundary -.- 5th article of compact 
disi'egarded — Proviso requiring ratification of boundaries — People of W^isconsin not 
consulted — Convention to form constitution provided for — 1818, Illinois admitted into 
the Union — Wisconsin attached to Michigan Territory — Michigan Territory authorized 
to elect delegate to Congress — Elective franchise — 1823, additional judge appointed 
west of Lake Michigan — Appeals and writs of error — Terms of court — Clerks — Res- 
idence and salary of judge — James D. Doty, first judge — David Irvin, second judge — 
Legislative council in Michigan — Territory established — Legislative assembly pro- 
vided for — Tenure of oflice for judges — Legislative council increased from 9 to 13 — 
Township and county offleers — Conned to be elective — Congress reserves right of 
repeal — 183i), term of court changed from Prairie du Chien to Mineral Point — Michigan 
teiritory extended to Missouri River. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 

Coutume de Paris — 'iiota.ry Public— Commander of Post administered justice — Limited 
administration of law in Wisconsin — 1763, British king establishes government of 
Quebec — 1774, Northwestern territory annexed to Quebec — Rights of Canadian 
subjects defined — Act denounced by Congress in 1774 — One of the grievances in 
Declaration of ladependence— Court of Trustees — Hesse — Quebec divided into Upper 
■and Lower Canada — 1792, Law of Canada repealed — Places of holding courts estab- 
lished — Slavery limited — 1794, Practice of courts— Inferior courts— Licensing attorneys 

— 1795, recoriling conveyances — 1796, British jui-isdiction surrendered to United States 

— Wayne coimty organized — Common law of England adopted — Woodward code — 
1816, "Cass" code — 1818, Idinois admitted, and Wisconsin remanded to jurisdiction of 
Michigan — 1810, laws of England repealed — Couturne de Pay-is and laws of Louisiana 
and Canada amiuUed — Laws of Northwest territory and Indiana territory annulled — 
I^aws passed between 1807 and 1810 repealed — Code of 1820 — 1818, new counties 
established — Mackinaw, Brown and Crawford — Courts in these counties — 1824, 
County seats of Brown and Crawford counties — Style of acts changed — 1826, Chip- 
pewa county — Sault de St Mary — 1827, townships of St. Anthony and Green Bay — 
Census — Apportionment — Counties west of Lake Michigan represented — 1828, special 
term in Crawford county to try Red Bird — Jurisdiction of county courts transferred 
to circuit courts — New apportionment — Iowa county organized — Boundaries — 
County seat — County courts — P. E. Church incorporated at Green Bay — 1630, act in 
relation to Iowa county — 1831, another apportionment — 1832, first vote on state 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. I5 

government - Special sessions of circuit court in Brown and Iowa counties — Places 
of election in Iowa county — County seat of Iowa county — 1834, Milwaukee county 
establislied and attached to Brown — 1835, fully organized — Dubuque aud Des Moines 
counties establislied — Census in 1831 — Bank of Wisconsin — Des Peres — Act to pro- 
vide for state government — Aug., 11- 3."), special session on account of boundary trouble 
with Ohio — Laws of Michigan in force in Wisconsin — Judicial system — Supreme 
court — Circuit courts — County courts — Probate court — Justices of the peace — 
Poor-debtors — Proscription of negroes — Salibath — Interest — Militia — Paupers — 
Autioueers — Highways. 

CHAPTER XV. 

WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 183.V0. 

J8'r)-lS.32, early settlements of the lead mines — 1835, Col. Wm. S. Hamilton drives 700 head 
of cattle from Illinois to Green Bay — Efforts to divide Michigan and organize Wis- 
consin territory — 1833, inhabitants of Michigan vote in favor of state government- 
Territory west of the Mississippi attaciied to Micliigan territory— 183(5, June 16, pro- 
visional act for the admission of tuichigan — 1837, Jan. 20. admission consumated — ■ 
1831, June S8, "Wisconsin" and "Green Bay" land dislricts established — 1835, 
1830, June 15, " Milwaukee " land district established — Provision for election of 
delegate and legislature — Governor to make apportionment west of Lake Mich- 
igan — Mode of canvassing votes changed — Members of legislature apportioned 
to counties west of Lake Michigan — Proclamation for session of Legislature at 
Green Bay, Jan. 1, 1836 — Michigan a State out of the Union — S. T. Mason, Governor 
of State of Michigan — John S. Horner, Secretary of Territory of Michigan — Election 
of delegate in 1835 — Candidates, Doty, Martin, Jones, Woodbridge — Jones elected — 

Members elect of Council — Proclamation of Hoi-ner creates confusion — Di-sregarded 

Council meets at Green Bay, Jan. 1 —0 present. 4 absent — Organization — Committee 
to wait ou Governor- Could not find him — His reason for not attending — Committee 
appointed to inquire into obstructions to legislation— Report — Council can do nothing " 
but i)ass resolutions aud memorials — Resolutions — President requested to remove 

Secretary — Not removed — Geo. H. Walker's letter e.xplaining Horner's absence 

Memorial to Congress for Territorial government — Cassville proiiosed for caiiital— 
Debate— Col . Hamilton — Col. Slaughter — Burnett — Eastern and western portions of 
territory — Comparative population — Cassville successful — Mr. Knapp — Report of 
committee on new teiTitory — Amendments — Proposition that Governor be elected — 
Opposed by Hamilton — Supported by Burnett — Adoption of memorial — Repoi-t on 
inteinal improvements — Doty as fiscal agent — Pi-oi>ositions to adjourn laid on table 
— Final adjournment. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 

Earliest land sales — Floats — Protection of settlers' rights — Territory of Wisconsin 
organized — Took effect July 4, 1836 — Boundaries — Executive power; Governor- 
Secretary — Legislative power; Council and House of Representatives — Census 

Apportionment — Right of suffrage — Extent of Legislative power — Appointment 
of county and town officers — Judicial power; Supreme Court; District Courts- 
Jurisdiction; Writs of Error and Appeals — Attorney and Marshal — Territorial 
officers appointed by the President — Territorial expenses — Laws of Blichigan 
in foi'ce — First session of Legislative Assembly — Public Buildings — Delegate to 

House of Representatives — Transfer of Ju(li(,-ial proceedings — Library — Summary 

Spain, France, Great Britain — Virginia — Northwestern Territorj-- Indiana Territory 

Michigan Territory — Illinois Territory — Jlichigan Territory. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — ia36. 

Land speculation in 183f5, and its effects — Specie circular — Eastern counties settled most 

rapidly —Territorial officei-s took oath of office at Mineral Point, July 4, 1830 Census 

apportionment — Election of delegate and members of Legislature on second Monday 



16 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

of October— Candidates in each county — Legislature met October 25th — Governor's 
Message — Stat<?ment of the various acts — Judicial districts — Creation of counties — 
Three banks incorporated — Seat of government established at Madison — Great Seal 
adopted — Memorials for improvements — Laws were passed in relation to sheriff's 
bonds; duties of coroner; incorporation of towns and villages; hcensing sale of liquors; 
bridge across Milwaukee river; Territorial road; railroads; joint resolution to purchase 
State hbrary — An effort to codify the laws failed and Legislature adjourned Dec. 9, 
after a session of 46 days — Numerous appointments to office were made by Governor 
and council — Supreme court held its fn-st session Dec. 8 — All the judges present — 
Clerk and Reporter appointed — First newspaper in Milwaukee — First in Belmont 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN— 1837. 

interest of people in proceedings of Congress ~ Sketch of George W. Jones, delegate — 
Measures proposed for Wisconsin — Ratiflcatign of treaty with Menomonees — Appro- 
priations for arrearages of Legislative expenses and for ordinary expenses — One 
section of land granted to Mineral Point and to other towns — The acts incorporating 
banks were approved — Appropriations for light houses at Milwaukee, Manitowoc, 
Sheboygan, Green Bay and Racine were made — Proceedings to proteot " claims " — 
Newspapers — Local jealousies in Milwaukee — Copper ore developments — County 
seats in Brown, Grant and Green counties — Mail routes and post offices — Judge 
Frazer's first court at Milwaukee — Commencement of the capitol at Madison —Pur- 
chase of library — Suspension of specie payments and its effects — Legislative session 
at Burlington Nov. 6 — 183", changes of membership — Governor's message — Legis- 
lature adjourned on the 20th January, 1838, having been in session T5 days, having 
resolved to meet again at same place on second Monday of June. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN— 1838. 

George W. Jones— Delegate in Congress and his connection as second of Mr. Cllley in a 
duel between him and Wm. J. Graves — Progress of work on the capitol at Madison — 
Appropriation by Congress --Indian treaties — Surveyor General's office estabUshed for 
Wisconsin and Iowa — University of Wisconsin — Post offices and post routes — A.ppro- 
priations by Congress for internal improvements — A preemption law which furnished 
partial relief was passed — Wisconsin Territory divided and Iowa Territory organized 
June 12, 1838 — Land sale at Green Bay, Oct. 22 — Sale at Milwaukee for Nov. 19 post- 
poned until next year — In June a short session of Legislature was held, a census of 
the population in May, 1838, showed 18,149 — Anew apportionment was made — An 
election held. The candidates for delegate were Jones, Doty and Burnett; Doty was 
elected — Distribution of money among traders and half-breeds of Winnebago Indians 
— First session of new Legislature met 26th Nov., and on the 22d Dec. adjourned to Slst 
of Jan. — County of Walworth was organized and county seat fixed at Elk Horn — Most 
of the acts related to roads, bridges and fei'ries and other private and local objects. 

CHAPTER XX. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1839. 

Contest for seat in Congress between Jones and Doty — Doty got the seat and Jones per 
diem and mileage — Appropriations — Veto power modified — Brothertown Indians — 
Defining boundary line between Wisconsin and Iowa — Bills which failed — Legislature 
met Jan. 21 — Governor's message —Winnebago Indians — Acts of fiscal agent ratified — 
Report of United States attorney as to title to the public park at Madison — Commis- 
sioners of public buildings investigated — Old law repealed and new commissioners 
appointed — New commissioners could make no settlement with the old — Bank inves- 
tigations—Attorney General ordered to wind up Bank of Wisconsin — State Bank 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 17 

incorporated — Several acts creating corporations were passed — Territorial roads were 
provided for — Building two dams across Rock River authorized — Rock, Dane, JefEersoa 
and Fond du Lac counties were organized — Many towns established — University land 
located — Judicial districts established and judges assigned — Time of annual session 
changed to first Monday of December — Revision of laws — Time of service of delegate 
fixed and an election provided for first Monday in August — Futile attempts to draw 
party lines — Doty, Kilbourn and Burnett were candidates — Doty was elected — Gov. 
Dodge's term expired 4th of July — He was reappointed for three years — The land 
sales at Milwaukee, which had been postponed, took place on 18th of February and 4th 
of March — The action of commissioners to distribute money under Winnebago treaty 
was annulled and a new commission appointed. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1840. 

Seven important measures introduced by the delegate, none of which were adopted — No 
appropriations were made, except for ordiuarj- territorial expenses — The preemption 
act extended for two years — In the Legislature of 183D-40, which met December 2, 
there were seven changes of membership — Names of members, nativity and occupation 
are given — Governor's message and its recommendations — More about Madison titles — 
The public buildings unfinished — Suits commenced — Report of committee on the 
subject — Doty 's position that acts of Legislative Assembly did not take effect until 
submitted to Congress, and letters on that subject from H. N. Wells, E. V. Whiton, 
Hans Crocker, Morgan L. Martin, and others — Southern boundary and State govern- 
ment — Banks — Capt. Cram's estimates of appropriations for roads' $130,000 — Land 
sale at Green Bay and at Milwaukee in April — Legislature adjourned on 13th January 

to 3d of August — Census, 30,747 — New apportionment of House of Representatives 

Several new towns were created — Winnebago county was laid off in January, 1840, as 
also St. Croix and Sauk — Dodge and Washington counties organized — Milwaukee 
"Bridge War" — Several acts of incorporation passed — Time of general election 
changed from first jMonday of August to fourth Monday of Septembey — Election of 
President in 1840- Doty 's address, entitled, " Voice of an Injured Territory " — its 
effect. 



CHAPTER XXn. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1841. 

Appropriation for Legislative expenses reduced from S-34,000 to $20,000 — No appropriation 
for harbors or internal improvements — Legislature of 1840-1 met Dec. 7 — House of 
Representatives under new apportionment was almost entirely changed — Message and 
its recommendation — Contested election case of Bruce and EUis — Brothertown 
Indians — Also La'Chappelle against Brunson — Condition of the capitol — Territorial 
suits — Reports of committees on subject — Territorial bonds for $7,000 authorized to 
be issued for completing capitol and contract let to Daniel Baxter — State government 
and southern boiuidary — Nothing done — Banks and safety fund — Examination of 
bank of Mineral Point — Favorable report — The bank failed in about four months — 
Memorials were passed asking Congress for appropi'iations for harbors and other im- 
provements — Territorial Geologist — Schools — Act for township government, optional 
with counties — Numerous towns established and territorial roads provided for — 
Portage county extended to north line of the Territor}-, and organized for county pur- 
poses — University lands — Certificates bearing 10 per cent, interest were issued for 
Territorial indebtedness — President Harrison died April 4, 1841, and Tyler became 
President — He removed Dodge and appointed Doty, also removed the Secretary, 
Attorney, Marshal, Surveyor General and most of the Land officei-s, and many other 
U. S. officers — Gov. Doty also made numerous removals of Territorial officers — ■V^^lig 
party organized in 1841, and nominated Jonathan E. Arnold, candidate for delegate. 
The Democratic party organized and nominated Henry Dodge, who was elected. 
2 



18 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

TERRITOKY OF WISCONSIIS — 1842. 

■Congressional action — Appropriation for Legislative expenses — Settlement of arrearages 

— Appropriations must precede sessions of Legislature — Doubts whether appropria- 
tion should be made to Mr. Dunn the old or Mr. Field the new secretary — Equivalents 
for preemption rights — Post routes — Gov. Doty's minor son appointed pension agent 

— Appointment withdrawn and Paraclete Potter appointed — Changes in membership 
of Legislature — Contest of Parmelee and Sill — La'Chappel vs. Brunson — Party aifflia- 
tions exhibited — Contest for president of the council — Democratic speaker — Secret 
executive sessions abolished — Governor's message; along paper — Referred to com- 
mittees in each branch and numerous reports made — The Governor's message strongly 
recommended State government — Legislature thought it too soon — Gov. Doty issues 
proclamat'on for vote on State government; but little attention paid to it — Boundary 
line between Michigan and Wisconsin — New apportionment of members — New 
counties — What counties adopted town system — New towns — Acts to amend village 
incorporations vetoed — Passed notwithstanding veto — Other bills passed over vetoes — 
Fond du Lac asssociation incorporated — Banks — Imprisonment for debt abolished — 
Numerous private acts passed'— Territorial roads — Contest over the office of State 
Treasurer — Public buildings and Territorial suits — Lead mines — Leasing system 
revived — Public feeling —The killing of C. C. P. Arndt by James R. Vineyard. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1843. 

Harbor and Light house appropriations —Appropriations for Territorial expenses — Certain 
officers made elective — Term of office of members of the Legislature reduced — 
Stockbridge Indians — Legislative Assembly meet Dec. 5, 1843 — Mostly new members 

— Organization — Governor Doty refuses to meet the Legislature — Action of the 
Legislature on the matter — The Governor's reasons — Memorial to the President 
asking the removal of the Governor — Both houses adjourn until the fourth Monday of 
January — Governor appoints special session for 6th March — Adjourned session — 
Governor still refuses to meet the Legislature — Adjournment to Gth March — Both 
houses meet on 6th March — Committee wait on Governor, who said he would send a 
written message at 2 o'clock that day — Message — A question of grammar — Recom- 
mendations of message — State government — Territorial debt — Proceeds of public 
lands — Internal improvements — Short session — Message referred — Conflict between 
Governor and Legislature renewed — " Special " session or "Adjourned " session — 
Resolutions adopted that the session is " special " — President of council resigns — 
Governor willing to cooperate — Session terminates on 25th March — New session on 
27th March — Organization continued — Peace restored — Various acts passed — To 
extend term of court in Walworth county — Appoint superintendent of Territorial 
property, passed over Governor's veto — Repairs of capitol — Baxter's claim — Ter- 
ritorial suits — Controversy with the librarian, B. Shakelford — Controversy with the 
auditor, J. T. Clark — Repoi ter expelled from seat in the House of Representatives — 
Legislature make no provision for vote on State government — Proclamation of Gov- 
ernor for vote — But little attention paid to it — Governor's vetoes — Bills passed by % 

— Errors in Governor's estimates of Legislative expenses — Report of Treasurer — 
Territorial tax — Ashburton treaty, fixing northwestern boundary — Division of Grant 
county defeated — Dodge county — St. Croix county — Creation and division of towns 

— Territorial roads — Dams — Racine to levy tax for harbor — Election of sheriff, 
etc. — Feeling about abolition — Banks — Small-pox — Death of Gov. Stevens T. Mason 

— Election of delegate — A party question, H . Dodge and Geo. W. Hickox, candidates. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 19 



CHAPTER XXV. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1814 

Appropriations by Congfress for harbors and legislative expenses — A section of land 
granted to improve Grant Slough and Potosi — Legislature met Dee. 4, 1843 — Slight 
changes in membership — Organization — Death of Dr. Lewis F. Linn — Message of 
Gov. Doty — State government — Short session — Debt — Taxation — " Fifth state " 
and its boundai'ies — Shall foreigners vote for state government ? — Question of form- 
ing state government submitted to the people — Large majority against it — Negro 
■suffrage — Infringement of boundaries — Report of committee — It shows the in- 
fringement, suggests a mode of restitution, and the effect on state government — 
Receipt and disbursement of share of proceeds of the public lands — Bill to pay Ter- 
ritorial debt — Report of Auditor and Treasurer of tlie Territory, was misleading — 
Their nominations were rejected — Territorial suits — Completion of the capitol 

— J. Y. Smith reelected superintendent — Baxter claim — University lands — Railroads 

— Wisconsin Marine and Fire Ins. Co. — Betterments — Terms of courts — Trespass 
on University and Canal lauds — Redemption from tax sales and limitation of suits — 
Organization of Portage county — Fond du Lac — Dodge — Sauk — Copies of record of 
deeds to be obtained in Grant, Green, Portage and Winnebago counties — Towns 
organized — Villages incorporated — Dams authorized — Free bridges in Blilwaukee 
and Racine — Territorial roads — Academies — Sjiecial tax for harbors in Milwaukee, 
Racine and Southport — Vetoes by Governor — Wit and mirth ^ Adjutant General — 
Memorials to Congress — Length of session and small approjH-iation — Adjouinment 
sine die — Future sessions to commence first Monday of January — Murder of Robert 
D. Lester — Politics — Whig convention — Removal of Rufus ParlvS — Nathaniel P. 
Tellmadge appointed to succeed Governor Doty. 



CHAPTER XX\^I. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1S45. 

Congress — Appropriation for Legislature only $1.3,700 — None for harbors except at 
Southport — $10,000 for roads — Meeting of Legislature — Change of membership — 
Organi-^ation — Rock and Walworth counties — Harmony between the Governor and 
Legislature — Contrast between Tallmadge and Doty — Message — Approves the act 
of last session as to suffrage of foreign-born citizens — Militia — Internal improve- 
ments and harbors — Debt — Education — Agriculture — Benediction — No recom- 
mendation of State government — Action of Legislature on the subject — Futile efforts 
to repeal suffrage act — Modified by its friends -— Auditor and Treasurer — Their 
reports — Secretary of the Territory — His reports — Complimented by resolution — 
Judge Irvin — Dissatisfaction at his absence — Office of Supreme Court Com- 
missioner abolished — Territorial suits, more delay — Baxter claim — Territory cannot 
be sued — Territorial tax to pay debt — New counties, Chippewa, La Pointe — Wash- 
ington comity organized — Dodge county seat located — Winnebago county — IMil- 
waukee county — Town government in Marquette county and Brown — Futile etforts 
to divide Jefferson, Dodge and Portage counties — Sauk county seat — Amendments 
of town government law — Act of Congress granting lands for town sites — Portage 
City — Fairplay — Boundaries of Milwaukee e.xtended — Beloit incorporated — New 
towns — Banks — Unauthorized banking — Orthography of Wisconsin — Territorial 
printer — Liquor license — University lands — Relative to County Treasurers. Clerks 
and Judges of Probate — Territorial roads — Special tax for roads in Milwaukee 
and Brown counties — Quietus of bridge controversy in Milwaukee — Improve- 
ment of Grant river at Potosi — Penitentiary — Dams — Divorce — Change of 
name — AVisconsin Phalanx — Janesville Academy — Congregational society in Mil- 
waukee — Memorials to Congress — Fees of Clerk of Supreme Court and Secretary of 
State — Sheep and dogs — When laws take effect — Adjournment sine die — Claim of 
preemption to lands reserved as mineral lands — Not sustained by Supreme Court of 
U. S. — Efforts of agents to lease lands — President's message recommends sale of 
mineral lands — Henry Dodge appointed Governor in place of Tallmadge, removed 



20 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Welcomed at Mineral Poiut by dinner and ball — Other appointments — Surveyor 
General, Marshal, Attorney, Land Officers — Morgan L. Martin nominated as delegate 
by the Democratic convention, James Collins by the Whig convention, and Edward D. 
Holton by the Liberty party — Martin elected — Stage lines — Disastrous conflagration 
in Milwaukee. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1846. 

Certainty of early State government — Enabling act passes Congress — No contest about 
boundaries-- Propositions of Congress — Harbor appropriation defeated by v^to — 
Appropriation of S~5,000 for roads reported did not pass — Appropriation of land for 
Fox and Wisconsin rivers — Appropriations for Territorial government — Surveyor 
General's salary increased — Stockbridge Indians — Sale of mineral lands authorized — 
Legislature meets 5th January — Change of membership — Organization — Nativity, 
age, residence and occupation of members — Governor's message — Referred to State 
government, school, debt, penitentiary, sale of mineral lands, rivers and harbors, 
militia and Indians — Message referred — Bill for State government reported and 
passed both houses — Election for or aeainst to be on fli-st Tuesday of April — Census 
first June — Apportionment for convention — When delegates elected — When con- 
vention to meet — Apportionment of Legislature — Wis. M. & F. Ins. Co. — Bank of 
Mineral Point — Debt — Auditor's report — Baxter claim — Territorial suits — Escheat of 
lands to the Territory — New counties: Waukesha, La Fayette and Columbia — New 
county out of Jefferson and Dodge defeated bj^ vote of people — New towns — Sheboy- 
gan county organized — County seats; Sauk, St. Croix — Line between Crawford and 
Chippewa established — Milwaukee incorporated as a city — Villages incorporated; 
Madison, Prairieville, Sheboygan and Potosi — University lands — Beloit college in- 
corporated — Carroll college — JIadison academy — Common schools — Terms of courts 
in 2d district — Court practice — Railroad charters — Plank roads — Territorial roads 

— Bridges in Milwaukee — Toll bridge in Darlington — Improvement of Grant river — 
Ferry at Potosi — Dams — Rochester cemetery — Religious societies to sell property 

— Manufacturing Co. — Filing of ministers' credentials — Divorce — Change of name — 
Liquor license — Militia — War with Mexico — Wisconsin Volunteers — Indian scare 
near JIuscoda — John Catlin Secretary of Territory vice Floyd — Confirmation of 
Governor's nominations — Territorial printer and superintendent of property elected 

— Memorials to Congress — Proceeds of canal lands turned over to Territorial treasury 

— Burning of wife and children of Marshall M. Strong, and his house — Adjournment 
sine die — Sale of mineral lands — Political parties — Newspapers — Vote on State 
government — Census — Governor issues two proclamations; one apportions members 
of Legislature, the other delegates to convention — Effect of party in election of dele- 
gates — Meeting of Constitutional convention — Delegates elect — Absentees — Not 
sworn — Election of president; influences affecting it — Other officers — Rules — 

— Standing committees — Judiciary committee increased — Mr. Ryan is indignant and 
refuses to serve on the committee — Disposition of the printing — Article on banks and 
banking — On suffrage and the elective franchise — Death of Thomas P. Burnett and 
his wiie and mother — Aj'ticle on judiciary — Rights of married women and homestead 
exemption — Resignation of Marshall M. Strong of his seat — To be submitted to vote 
on first Tuesday of April — Adjournment sine die. 

chapte!r xxviii. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN - 1847. 

Division of the Democratic party upon adoption of constitution — Congress passes act for 
admission of the State —Assents to the change of boundary proposed in the constitution 

— Proviso of ratification by vote of people — Same appropriations for Territorial ex- 
penses — None for harbors — Two for light-houses— Chippewa Land District created 

— Land for Beetown — Prel'mption to Champion and Deering at New Diggins — Legis- 
lature meets January 4th — List of members — Organization — Message — It refers t •> 
admission of State into the Union; Territorial debt: Harbors: Militia; Capt. Knowlton's 
volimteer company in U. S. service; Indians and purchase of lands — Incident as to 
W. A. Barstow — Opposition to constitution developed — Committee report a bid !< r 



TABLE OF CONTENTS- 21 

a nc.v convention in June, if the constitution sliall be rejected — Passes the council; 
indefinitely postponed in House — Raih'oads — Report of Grant river Improvement — 
Improvement of Grand Rapids, of AVisconsin river — Memorial to Congress for improve- 
ment of rapids in Mississippi river — Dams — Bridge at Oshkosh — Special harbor tax 
at Racine — Navigation Co. at Green Baj'— Removal of suits from Milwaukee to 
Waukesha — County seats: Washington county; Iowa county; Columbia count}- — 
Organization of La Fayette county — Winnebago county — Nevt^ tovv'ns organized — 
Villages of 8outhport and Fond duLac incorporated; Prairieville changed to Waukesha; 
Beloit repealed, and Milwaukee city charter amended, and authorized to borrow money 
for school-house sites — Teiritorial roads laid out — Memorial asking for U. S. road 
from Prairie du Chien to La Pointe — Insurance Co. incorporated — Churches aut horized 
to become corporations — " Nashotah House" incorporated; Lawrence Institute in- 
cori^orated; Memorial for graftit of land to it; passed council, but not the House — 
Academies or seminaries were incorporated at Monroe, Watertown, Sheboygan, Beaver 
Dam and Prairie du Sac, and a librarj^ association at Beloit — Sumptuary laws — 
University lands — Divorces and change of names — Dower — Election of Printer and 
Superintendent — Baxter claim — Penitentiary — Facetious rejjort on quackery — Sale 
of the mineral lands — The voting for the ratification or reiection of the constitution — 
Official result — Democratic convention to nominate a candidate for delegate — The 
result — Whig convention nominate John H. Tweedy — Charles Durkee, Abolition can- 
didate — Official statement of result; Mr. Tweedj^ elected — Proclamation of Governor 
for special session — Convened on ISth October — Two changes in council — House all 
new; list of members — Organization — Message; limited to question of State govern- 
ment — Action of Legislature confined to the passage of a law for another convention 
of sixty-nine delegates to be- elected on the 29th of November — Apportionment of 
delegates — Convention to meet December 15th — Census — Another convention, if 
constitution should not be adopted — Session of Legislature postponed — Political 
division of the convention — Population. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1848. 

Second convention meets — List of members — Organization — William S. Hamilton con- 
tests the seat of John O'Connor — Commission to take testimo)iy — - Contest unsuccess- 
ful—Rules—Prayers—Standing committees — Printing — Article on "Executive," 
Veto; Lieutenant Governor — " Organization and functions of the Judiciary" — 
" Boundaries " — " Legislative " — " Suffrage " — " Exemptions from forced sale " — 
"Banks and Banking" — Other articles adopted without contest — Submitted to 
popular vote second Monday of March — Elections of State officers, etc., second Monday 
in May — Legislature meet first Monday in June — Convention adjourned sine die 
February 1st — Constitution adojited by the people on the 13th March — Admitted into 
the Union Blay 19th — Last session of Legislature met February 7th — Meinbers the 
same — Organization — Message — It refers to harbors; Grant river improvement, 
Death of Silas Wright, and does not deem it proper to submit " subjects of general 
legislation " — appropriation only sufficient for session of 24 days — Laws were passed in 
relation to making land office certificates evidence; publication of notices; convey- 
ances; commitments; cemeteries and telegraph — Resolutions in relation to the death 
of Silas Wright, John Quincy Adams and Captain Augustus Ouarles — Settlement of 
the Territorial suits — Baxter claim — Memorials to Congress — Repudiating resolu- 
tions of 1842rescinded — Divorces; 42 asked and 24 granted — Change of names — Ap- 
propriation to heirs of T. P. Burnett — County seat of La Fayette county — Vote ou 
division of Grant county — Boundaries of Fond du Lac, Winneiiago and Calumet 
counties in Lake Winnebago — Adams county organized; and Manitowoc — County 
seats; Sauk, Columbia and Washington — Records transferred from Milwaukee to 
Waukesha county — 3Ir. IMooers of Washington county resigns his seat — New towns 
organized — Village charters amended and repealed — Beetown — Incoi-poration of 
"Du Lac Academy;" "Sinsinawa Mound College ; " "Wisconsin Medical College," at 
Milwaukee — Blihvaukee & Waukesha R. R. Co.; supplementary act — Sixteen plank 

or turnpike roads incorporated — Nvnnerous Territorial roads — Five ferry charters 

Eleven acts were passed authorizing the erection of dams on navigable rivers — " Wis- 
consin Iron Co.," iacorporated — Lumber inspector for St. Croix count}' — Territorial 
Printer and Superintendent — Legislature adjourns sine die — Territory of Wis- 
consin' becomes only a memory. 



22 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 
Early navigation of Rocij River — Public atteution directed to canal in 1836 — Petition for 
canal charter in 1833; no action — Survey in 1837— Charter of Canal Co., January 5, 
183S — Provisions of the act — Co. authorized to apply to Congress for aid — Co. 
organized Febi-uary 3, 1838 — Co. memorialize Congress for grant of land — Engineer 
submits estimate of cost — Byron Kilbourn appointed agent to go to Washington, and 
goes — Memorial presented in Senate — Favorable report and biU — Bill passed Senate 
June 1, excluding preemptions — Referred in House — Passed House with amendments 
which were concurred in by Senate — Bill became a law June 18th — Kilbourn presents 
bill to Legislature at session of 1838, which Canal Co. wished passed— It authorized 
the Territoiy to borrow §500,000 — Provided for Terrixorial oflices, for the appraisal and 
sale of the granted lands — Bill introduced in Council on 15th of December — Adjourn- 
ment to 21st of January — Popular hostility to canal- — Another bill introduced in 
Council on 25th of January, which became a law on the 26th of February, 1839 — It 
authorized loan of only .$50,000 — Change in Territorial officers and their duties — 
Other provisions unsatisfactoiy to Canal Co. — Officers appointed by governor — Final 
location of canal 6th May — Plats of location sent to Commissioner Greneral Land 
Office, and lands designated; 139,191 acres — Session of Legislature 1839 — Report of 
canal commissioners — Land sales — Settlers protected — Bonds for $50,000 had been 
executed, agent appointed to sell them, who reported that he could not — Even num- 
bered sections and preemption — Canal Co. present memorial, which complains of act of 
last session — Salaries too high — Resolutions of inquiry adopted — Kilbourn's reply — 
Resolution of inquiry by the House and response — Resolution of Council that president 
of company present plans and estimates of cost of canal — They are submitted — 
Proceedings in House — Report of committee — Bill to abandon construction of canal 

— Amendments adopted providing an opposite policy — Concurred in and became a 
law — Compensation of officers reduced — To be elected by Legislature — Canal fund 
to be used for constructing canal, if no loan is made by September — Kilbourn ap- 
pointed loan agent — Mr. Higginbotham's proposition — Declined by the Governor — 
Special session of Legislature in August, 1840 — Nothing done about canal — No loan in 
1840 — Legislature meet December 7, 1840 — Report of canal company and of canal 
commissioners — Referred to a committee — Bill reported — Becomes a law February 
12th — Substitutes wooden locks for stone; authorized bonds for $100,000, and 7 per 
cent, interest; proceeds to be deposited in any sound specie paying banks, selected by 
commissioners and Governor, subject to draft of receiver — Old bonds to be recalled — 
Kilbourn reappointed loan agent May, 1841 — James D. Doty appointed Governor vice 
Dodge, removed --Doty revokes Kilbourn's authority SeiDtember 1, 1841 — On 22d of 
June Kilbourn negotiated loan for $31,000 at Cincinnati — On the 4th of August 
he negotiated a loan for $5,000 in New York — On 14th August he negotiated 
another loan for $15,000 at Oneida, N. Y. — On 26th August he negotiated another loan 
for $5,000 at Albany, N. Y. — The loans, except $1,000, were not sanctioned by the 
Receiver for the reasons assigned that they were not authorized by the law or the 
authority of the loan agent — Legislature met December, 1841 — Gov. Doty in his 
message says canal is impracticable and work ought not to be continued — Message 
and report of loan agent referred to committee in council — Committee report resolu- 
tions which passed both Houses; approved by Governor February 18, 1842 — They 
declare 55 of the bonds negotiated to be null and void — And that the other 44 are null 
and void — Vote upon the resolutions — One bond was paid and all the others but ten 
afterwards returned and canceled — Work on the canal stopped — February 1.5, 1848, 
Gov. Dodge recommends rescinding the repudiating resolutions — Resolutions were 
rescinded — At session of 1842 resolutions passed that the Territory ought not further 
to execute the canal trust— Authority to make loans repealed — Efforts to change the 
grant from canal to railroad — Payment for canal lands indefinitely postponed in 1844 

— In 1845 all unsold canal lands to be offered for sale at $1.25 per acre, and lands 
previously sold to be paid for at same rate — Report of Register and Receiver in 1816 

— Canal fund diverted to Territorial treasury — Report of Register and Receiver in 

1847 — Appropriation to John Anderson in 1847 — Report of Register and Receiver in 

1848 — Payment of interest on repudiated bonds — Refunding excess to purchasers of! 
canal lands — Duties of Register and Receiver transferred to Secretary of State and 
State Treasurer — Unsold canal lands made part of the 500,000 acre grant — Unsettled 
canal matters left a legacy to the State of Wisconsin. 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF " FLORIDA " AND " LOUISIANA." 

The historical compilation made by General William R. 
Smith, and published in 1854 by authority of the Legislature, 
and now out of print, presents an elaborate review of the 
early history of Wisconsin, previously to 183G, and as intim- 
ately connected with it, a retrospective view of the explora- 
tions of the whole valley of the Mississippi river. 

An epitome of this historical retrospect of these early 
explorations will be given, consisting chiefly of extracts 
from that valuable work, sustaining as they do, a relation 
to the more modern history of the Territory, no less intimate 
than interesting. 

The southern coast of the North American continent, 
near St. Augustine, Florida, was discovered on Easter 
Sunday, 1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, a companion of 
Columbus. He named the new found country Pascua 
Florida. The Spaniards of early times designated all of 
North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakes, 
by the name of Florida, and under that name claimed the 
whole sea-coast as far as Newfoundland. Ponce de Leon 
was appointed Governor of the country, and in 15^,1 was 
killed by the natives. 

In 151 G Diego Miruelo sailed for Havana and landed at 
some point in Florida, which he has not distinctly described. 

Ten years later Pamphilo de Narvaez obtained permis- 
sion from Spain to prosecute discoveries and make further 
conquest of Florida. In 1528, he, with three hundred men 
(of whom eighty were mounted), landed near Appalachee 



24 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Bay. In a fruitless search for gold they wandered over the 
lands lying north of the Gulf for six months, when they 
again sought the gulf coast, where they desperately em- 
barked in rude boats which they had manufactured, and 
finally perished in a storm. 

The chivalric and romantic adventures of Ferdinand de 
Soto are so familiar to every American, that only the brief- 
est possible reference to them is demanded: 

In May, 1539, De Soto, having participated with Pizarro 
in the conquest of Peru, and having obtained leave from 
the Spanish king to conquer Florida, accompanied by a well 
armed and brilliant band of six hundred men, with between 
tAvo and three hundred horses, landed in the bay of Spiritu 
Santo, or Tampa Bay, eager to prosecute his contemplated 
enterprise, and filled with hope and spirit of adventure. 

Nearly two years were spent by De Soto and his band of 
adventurous followers, during which they climbed the 
mountains of Georgia, captured the town of Mavila or 
Mobile, passed the winter (1540-1) near the Yazoo, and 
finally on the first of April, 1541, reached the Mississippi 
Piver not far from the 35th parallel of latitude. After 
spending months in explorations west of the Great River, 
and spending the third winter of their wanderings on the 
Washita, they descended this river to its junction with the 
Mississippi, where, in May, 1542, De Soto died of a malignant 
fever. His body was wrapped in a mantle, and sunk in the 
middle of the stream. The discoverer of the Father of 
Waters, the most remarkable of all his discoveries; he slept 
beneath its turbid current, and one-half of his six hundred 
followers had left their bones among the mountains and in 
the morasses of the south, from Georgia to Arkansas. 

A desire of conquest and a greed for gold were the incen- 
tives of all these adventurers. More than a century later, 
the missionary spirit of religion led to numerous explorations 
of the Mississippi valley by the route of the great lakes. 
Champlain had discovered the lake which bears his name 
more than ten years before the landing of the pilgrims at 
Plymouth. 

In 16 IC, Le Caron, a Franciscan friar, reached the rivers 
of Lake Huron. 

In 1027, a charter grant of ISTew France was obtained from 
Louis XIII. by a number of French merchants, organized 
by a French nobleman — the Dukede Richlieu — which in- 



EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 25 

eluded the whole basin of the St. Lawrence, and of such 
other rivers as flowed directly into the sea, and also Florida. 
After the restoration of Quebec in 161)2, by the English, they 
entered on the government of their province. 

The Jesuits Brebeup and Daniel, followed soon by Lal- 
LEMAND, in 1G34 penetrated to the heart of the Huron wilder- 
ness, where soon after two villages, St. Louis and St. Igna- 
tius, sprung up, and where was raised the first house of the 
Society of Jesus. 

As early as 1618, M. Nicollet lived with the Indians on 
the Ottawa river, and two years later, with tribes bordering 
on Lake Huron. 

It is well authenticated that before 1640, Nicollet pene- 
trated Wisconsin as far as the Wisconsin river. In the 
Jesuit relation for 1640 is found this passage written from 
Quebec to France, by Pere Le Jeuni: 

" M. Nicollet, who has penetrated farthest into these most distant regions, has assured 
me that if he had pushed on three days longer, on a great river which issues from tlie 
second lake of the Hurons (Lal^e Michigan), he would have found the sea. Now I strongly 
suspect this sea is on the north of Mexico, and that thereby we could have an entrance in 
Japan and China." 

Parkman in his "Jesuits in North America" writes as 
follows: 

" As early as 1C39, Nicollet ascended the Green Bay of Michigan, and crossed the waters 
of the Mississippi." 

It is not probable that Nicollet saw the river that is now 
known as the " Mississippi,"' while it is certain that his visit 
to the Wisconsin river was in 1634, and not in 1630. A 
record in the Canadian Archives shows that Nicollet started 
from Three Rivers on a western voyage in July, 1634. 

It is not improbable that Nicollet may have trod the soil 
of Wisconsin earlier than 1634, but no reasonable doubt ex- 
ists of his visiting the Wisconsin tribes in council during 
that year, where, it is recorded, there were assembled 

"Four thousand warriors, who feasted on six score of beavers. lie appeared before 
them in a robe of state, adorned with figures of flowers and birds. Approaching with a 
pistol in each hand, he fired both at once. The astonished natives hence styled him 
'Thunder Beaver.'" 

In 1641, the fathers Raymbault and Jogues, the first 
envoys from Christendom, met at the Falls of St. Mary 
two thousand Indians who had assembled to receive them. 

As early as 1652, Father Jean Dequerre, Jesuit, went from 
Sault St. Marie to the Illinois and established a flourishing 
mission, probably that of "St. Louis," where Peoria is now 



■ 26 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

situated. He visited various Indian tribes and was killed 
in 1661, in the midst of his apostolic labors. 

In 1654, twp fur traders joined a band of Ottowas and 
made a western voyage of five hundred leagues. In two j 

years they returned, accompanied with fifty canoes and two 
hundred and fifty men. 

The traders visited Green Bay, and two of them passed 
the winter of 1659 on the banks of Lake Superior. 

In 1657, Father Jean Chakles Drocoux, Jesuit, went to 
Illinois, and returned to Quebec the same year. 

In the autumn of 1660, Pere Rene Mesnard, having been 
chosen by the bishops of Quebec to visit Lake Superior and 
Green Baj^, reached Keweena, and the next year having 
wandered in the forest, was never more seen. 

In 1665, Pere Claude Allouez embarked on a mission to 
the far west. He reached the falls of St. Mary in Septem- 
ber, and from thence went to the great village of the Chip- 
pew as at Chegoiemegon. Here a grand inter-tribal council 
was held. There were present the Potowatamies from Lake 
Michigan; the Sacs and Foxes from the west; the Hurons 
from north of Lake Superior; the Sioux from the headwaters 
of the Mississippi, as well also as the Illinois, whose enticing 
description of the noble river flowing to the south, on which 
they dwelt, and their vast prairies replete with buffalo and 
deer, created a desire to explore their country, which was 
not long to remain ungratified. 

In 1667, Allouez returned to Quebec, and in 1668, Claude 
Dablon and James Marquette returned to the Sault, where 
they established the mission of St. Mary's, the oldest Euro- 
pean settlement within the bounds of the state of Michigan. 

In 1669, Nicholas Perrot was despatched to the west as 
the agent of the Intendant Talon, to prepare a congress of 
the Indian nations at St. Mary's. Perrot visited Green Bay, 
and from there was escorted by the Potowatamies, to the 
Miamis at Chicago, being the pioneer of European explor- 
ers to the southern part of Lake Michigan. 

There is reason to suppose that about the same time, 
Robert Cavelier de La Salle reached the Ohio river by 
way of Lake Erie, and descended it as far as the rapids at 
Louisville. 

In 1669, Allouez made an excursion to Green Bay, and 
up the Fox river as far as the town of the Mascoutins, and 
in the autumn of 1670, having been joined by Dablon, the 



EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 27 

two fathers again visited Green Bay, and established there 
the mission of St. Francois Xavier. 

The great congress of the Indian nations was held at 
St. Mary's, in May, 1G71. The cross was raised and by its 
side a column was planted and marked with the lilies of 
the Bourbons and it was formally announced to the natives 
that they were placed under the protection of the French 
king. 

The cross was born by Allouez and Dablon through 
eastern Wisconsin and the north of Illinois, among the 
Mascoutins and the Kickapoos on the Milwaukee, and the 
Miamis at the head of Lake Michigan, as well as the Foxes 
on the river which bears their name, and which, in their 
language, was the Wau-ke-sha. 

In 1G73, Marquette, with the Sieur Joliet, explored the 
Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and descended the Mississippi 
below the entrance of the Arkansas, and then returning, 
ascended the Illinois and making a portage to the Chicago 
river, descended it to Lake Michigan, and returned by that 
Lake to Green Bay. They left Sault St. Mary, May, 13. 
They arrived safely at Green Bay and thence went up Fox 
river to the town of the Mascoutins, which was three 
leagues from the " portage " and was probably near the 
head of Buffalo lake. On June 10, they left this Indian 
town and embarked upon the Wisconsin, then called Mas- 
cousin. In seven days, they reached the Mississippi by the 
route of the great highway of nature, which the Fox and 
Wisconsin rivers furnished, and which Nicollet had par- 
tially explored thirty-nine years before. The voyagers, 
having descended the Mississippi river to the Indian village 
of Akansea, near the latitude of 33 degrees, on the 17th of 
July, commenced their return voyage. In passing up the 
Illinois, Marquette was entreated by the tribe of that 
name to come and reside among them. One of their chiefs, 
with their young men, conducted the voyagers to the Chi- 
cago river and Lake Michigan, and before the end of 
September they were safe in Green Bay. 

Joliet returned to Quebec, and Marquette remained. 
He spent the winter and the following summer at the mis- 
sion of Green Bay, suffering from sickness. In October, 
1G74, he left Green Bay, intent upon establishing a mission 
on the Illinois river. In November he reached the Chicago 
river. His malady had returned upon him and he was com- 



28 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

pelled to spend the winter on its banks, about two leagues 
from its mouth, where his companions built a log hut. 

On the 30th of March, 1G75, Marquette was able to re- 
sume his journey, and making the portage to the Des 
Plaines, he descended the Illinois river until he came to an 
Indian town, which he called Kaskaskia, which is on the 
right bank of the Illinois about midway between the pres- 
ent towns of Ottawa and La Salle. Here he met several 
thousand Indians and harrangued them on the mysteries of 
the Faith. They begged him to stay among them, but his 
life was fast ebbing away, and it behooved him to depart. 
He returned to Chicago, and while sailing thence along the 
eastern shore of Lake Michigan, on the 19th of May, they 
entered a small stream, which bears the name of Mar- 
quette, and he breathed his last upon its banks, and was 
buried in the sand. The next year his relics were borne to 
the Chapel of St. Ignace, of Michilimacina, and buried 
beneath its floor. 

The SiEUR La Salle was born at Rouen, 1643, of good 
family. In 1666, he sailed for Canada. The Jesuits of St. 
Sulpice had a settlement at Montreal and control of all the 
land in that vicinity. From them he obtained a grant at 
La Chene, nine miles above Montreal, and engaged in the 
fur trade. In 1675, La Salle obtained from the king the 
rank of nobility and the concession of a large domain at the 
outlet of Lake Ontario, and the exfJusive traffic with the 
Five Nations. Here he erected a fort, which he named 
Frontenac, where is now the city of Kingston. 

In 1679, with Tonti as his lieutenant, the Franciscan 
Hennepin and a party of mechanics and traders, he con- 
structed a vessel of sixty tons on the upper Niagara river, 
which he called the Griffin. On the 7th of August the sails 
of the Griffin were spread to the breezes of Lake Erie; and 
planting a trading post at Mackinaw, he cast anchor in 
Green Bay early in September. 

Having dispatched the Griffin to Niagara river richly 
laden with furs, he, with his company, made their way in 
bark canoes to the head of Lake Michigan, and at the 
mouth of the St. Joseph river constructed the trading house 
with palisades, known as the Fort of the Miamis. 

In December, La Salle with Tonti, Hennepin, and two 
other Franciscans and about thirty other followers, as- 
cended the St. Joseph, as far as the present town of South 



EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 29 

Bend, and by a short portage^ entered the Kankakee and 
descended to the site of tlie Indian village below Ottowa, 
which Marquette had left nearly five years'before. The 
tribe was absent, passing the winter in the chase. He con- 
tinued on to the site of the present city of Peoria,, where he 
found many Indians, with whom he remained a few days. 
About the middle of January (1680) he moved with his party 
a short distance down the river, where he planned and 
began to build a fort on the left bank, which he called 
Crevecceur — broken heart. 

In the month of March, he set off on foot with three com- 
panions for Fort Frontenac, where he arrived May Gth. He 
embarked again from Fort Frontenac August 10, with large 
supplies of men and stores for rigging a brigantine. His 
route was by Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay. On the 
4th of November he reached the ruined fort at the mouth of 
the St. Joseph, and in a few days, by the route he had taken 
about a year before, he again reached the post in Illinois, 
which was now deserted. Hence came the delay of 
another year, which after exploring the Illinois river to its 
mouth, was occupied in visiting Green Bay, and conducting 
traffic there; in finding To:^;TI, who had been driven from 
Crevecoeur — and his men, and perfecting a capacious barge 
with which to explore the Mississippi. 

On the 28th of February 1G80, Hennepin with his two 
companions, Accau and DuGay, set out by direction of La- 
Salle to explore the upper Mississippi. Hennepin left the 
mouth of the Illinois on the 12th of March. He ascended the 
Mississippi, and after passing the mouth of the Wisconsin, 
and below Lake Pepin, the voyagers, on the 12th of April, 
were made prisoners by the Siouxs. They w^ere taken in 
their canoes as far a,s the present site of St. Paul, where their 
captors took them across the country to their villages near 
Lake Buade, now called Mille Lacs. After remaining pris- 
oners at the Indian village about two months, the Indians 
set out in a body on a buffalo hunt, taking their captives 
with them. They descended Rum river which forms the 
outlet of Mille Lac. At the mouth of Rum river, Hennepin 
and Du Gay were liberated, and furnished a small canoe, 
an earthen pot, a gun, a knife and a robe of beaver skin. 
Thus equipped, they began their journey, and soon beheld 
for the first time the Falls of St. Anthony. They descended 
the great river as far as the mouth of the Chippewa, and 



30 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

being in danger of starvation, they ascended that stream 
and joined a large body of Sioux hunters. They soon after 
met Daniel' Greysolon Du Lhut, a cousin of Tonti, with 
four well-armed Frenchmen. When Hennepin met Du- 
Lhut, the latter had been about two years in the wilderness. 
He had left Quebec in September, 1678. In 1679, he visited 
several of the Sioux villages. In June, 1680, he, with the 
four Frenchmen and an Indian, set out from the head of 
Lake Superior and reached the Mississippi river by the 
route of the Brule and the St. Croix. Hennepin and Du Gay 
returned with Du Lhut and his companions to Mille Lac. 
The Indians had become more friendly, and when in the 
autumn the travelers proposed to go home, the Sioux did 
not oppose their departure, and they set out together — eight 
white men in all, well equipped for supplying themselves 
with game. 

After various adventures, the party reached the Jesuit 
mission at Green Bay, by the route of the Wisconsin and 
Fox Rivers, and soon after reached Mackinaw, where they 
spent the winter. The following spring Hennepin descended 
the lakes and their connecting rivers to Fort Frontenac and 
thence to Montreal, and soon after went to Europe, and died 
in obscurity. 

In May, 1681, La Salle set out in canoes from Fort 
Miami and soon reached Mackinaw, where he found Tontl 
The two embarked for Frontenac, and returned late in the 
autumn to Fort Miami. In December, they went in canoes 
to the Chicago river, and placing their canoes on sledges, 
dragged them to the open water of the Illinois river below 
Lake Peoria, upon which the party soon embarked and on 
the 6th of February (1682), they issued forth on the majestic 
bosom of the Mississippi. They reached the mouth of the 
river in about two months, and La Salle erected a column 
and a cross bearing the arms of France, and inscribed upon 
it the words, " Louis the Great, king of France and JSTavarre, 
reigning April 9, 1682;'' and formally taking possession for 
France of all the country watered by the Mississippi, he 
named it Louisiana. He ascended the river and the Illinois, 
and in May, 1683, returned to Quebec to embark for France. 

The disastrous attempt of La Salle during the next three 
or four years to colonize " Louisiana," in which he sailed 
from France with four vessels, bearing two hundred and 
eighty persons, and missing the mouth of the Mississippi 



EARLY EXPLORATIONS. 31 

landed at Matagorda Bay, and in which this daring adven- 
turer was assassinated by three of his own men on the 2Cth 
of March, 1G87, in a branch of the Trinity river, need not be 
detailed. It is, however, to him that must mainly be 
ascribed the discovery of the vast regions of the Mississippi 
valley and the subsequent occupation and settlement of 
them by the French. 

In June, 1689, France declared war against England, in 
which the American colonies of two kingdoms were so 
involved that no further settlements in Louisiana were at- 
tempted until after the peace of Ryswick in September, 1697. 

In 1689, Green Bay contained a fort, chapel and mission- 
ary house, which were situated among the villages of the 
Sacs, Potawatamies and Menomonies. 

In October, 1689, two vessels under the command respect- 
ively of M. D'Iberville and the Marquis Chateaumorand, 
sailed from France for the mouth of the Great River. They 
touched at Pensacola in January, 1699, and passing Mobile 
Bay, landed on Dauphin Island. Iberville with more than 
fifty men, departed in barges, entered the Mississippi on the 
2d of March, which he ascended for some distance, when he 
returned to the Bay of Biloxi. Here they built a fort, three 
leagues west of the Pensacola river, and leaving his broth- 
ers De Bienville and Sanvole in command, the explorers 
returned to France. 

In December, 1699, Iberville returned from Europe with 
two armed vessels and several officers for garrisons, accom- 
panied by M. Le Sueur and thirty workmen. In April, 
1700, Le Sueur led a company to explore the river for 
minerals. They ascended to the St. Peters, and up that 
river to the mouth of the Blue Earth, where they spent the 
winter and returned in the spring to Biloxi. 

In the month of June, 1701, De la Motte Cadillac, with 
a Jesuit missionary and one hundred Frenchmen was sent 
to take possession of Detroit. In 1712, the Outagamies or 
Foxes attempted the destruction of the fort. They were 
repulsed and compelled to surrender at discretion. 

The oldest permanent European settlement in the valley 
of the Mississippi is Kaskaskia, the seat of a Jesuit mission. 
Father Gravier w^as its founder, but the exact date of its 
origin is uncertain. Land titles were issued for purposes of 
settlement and cultivation. The date of the earliest one on 
record being May 10, 1722, signed " Boisbriant." 



32 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

England, by the peace of Utrecht in April, 1713, obtained 
from France large but not well defined concessions of terri- 
tory in America. 

As early as 1730, a lucrative trade had sprung up between 
the Illinois country and the province of Lower Louisiana. 
In that year, Monseur Boisbriant, the commandant on the 
Illinois, removed his headquarters to the bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, twenty-five miles below the village of Kaskaskia, 
where Fort Charters was built. Its walls were of strong 
masonry, but within a hundred years were overgrown with 
almost impenetrable vines and forest trees. 

Soon after the construction of Fort Charters, the villages 
of Cahokia, Prairie de Rocher and some others sprung into 
note in its vicinity. All the settlements continued to ex- 
tend and multiply. In 1721, the Jesuits had established a 
monastery and college in Kaskaskia, and four years later, 
the village became a chartered town. During the first 
twelve years of the eighteenth century, not less than 
twenty-five hundred settlers had been introduced in " Louis- 
iana," and in 1717, the number of inhabitants was not more 
than seven hundred, including persons of every age, sex 
and color. 

In 1711, the government of Louisiana, comprising all the 
"Illinois country," was placed in the hands of a governor-gen- 
eral — DiRAU d' Artaguette — with headquarters at the site 
of the present city of Mobile, where a new fort was erected. 
" Louisiana " was at this time held by France to embrace 
the whole valley of the Mississippi and all its tributaries, 
and to extend north to the great lakes, and the waters of 
Hudson's Bay, and, of course, included all of the present 
state of Wisconsin. 

In August, 1718, eight hundred emigrants for Louisiana, 
attracted by visions of wealth to result from the " Missis- 
sippi Scheme " of John Law, landed at Dauphine Island, 
and inade their way to lands that had been ceded them, and 
which had been selected by Bienville, where is now the 
city of New Orleans. 

In 1719, Philippe Francis Renault, " Director General 
of the mines of Louisiana," arrived in the Illinois country 
with two hundred miners and artificers. They made fruit- 
less explorations for mines as far as the sources of the St. 
Peters, the Arkansas, the tributaries of the Missouri and 
even to the Rocky Mountains. 



WARS WITPI FOX INDIANS. 33- 

CHAPTER II. 

WARS WITH FOX INDIANS. 

The ability of the Outagamies to annoy the French and 
to war with their savage enemies, was materially affected 
by their futile attempt to destroy Detroit in 1712, and by 
the desperate fight which ensued near Lake St. Clair; yet 
their failure only added fresh and implacable inspiration to 
the savage spirit of hate and revenge which prompted them 
to resort to another locality for its gratification. 

They collected their dispersed bands on the Fox river, 
where they robbed and butchered all travelers on this great 
highway of nature from the lakes to the Mississippi. The 
Sauks were their old and natural allies, and the Sioux 
were induced to openly join them, while many of the 
Iroquois were allied to them clandestinely. Indeed, the 
danger of a general alliance among the savages against 
the whites appeared threatening. 

This threatened danger induced the French governor of 
Canada to propose a union of the friendly tribes with the 
French, in a war of extermination against the common 
enemy, to which these tribes readily consented. A party of 
French was raised, and the command of the expedition was 
wisely confided to the brave, energetic and discreet De 
LouviGNY, the king's lieutenant at Quebec. 

De LouviGNY and his command left Quebec on the 14th 
of March, 1716, and was joined on his route by a number of 
savages, so that his force amounted to eight hundred men, 
resolved upon the total destruction of the Fox nation. He 
returned to Quebec on the 13th of October, and ihe next day 
gave to the council the following account of his expedition: 

"After three days of open trenches, sustained by a continuous fli-e of fusileers with two 
pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar, tliey were reduced to ask for peace, notwithstand- 
ing they had five hundred wari-iors in tlie fort who fired briskly, and more than three 
thousand women; they also expected shortly a reinforcement of three hundred men. But 
the promptitude with which the oflfieers, who were in this action, pushed forward the 
trenches that I had opened at only seventy yards from their fort, made the enemy fear the 
third night that they would be taken. As I was onlj- twenty -four yards from their fort, my 
design was to reach the triple oak stakes by a ditch of a foot and a half in the rear. Per- 
ceiving very well that my balls had not the effect I anticipated, I decided to take the place 
at the first onset, and to explode two mines under their curtains. The boxes being prop- 
erly placed for the purpose, I did not listen to the enemie's first proposition; but they 
3 



34 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

having made a second one, I submitted it to my allies who consented to it on the following 
conditions: That the Foxes and their allies would make peace with all the Indians who are 
submissive to the king, and with whom the French are engaged in trade and commerce, 
and that they would return to me all the French prisoners that they have, and those 
captured during the war from our allies. This was complied with immediately. That they 
would take slaves from distant natives and deliver them to our allies, to replace their dead; 
that they should hunt to pay tlie expenses of this war, and as a surety of the keeping of 
their word, they should deliver me six chiefs or children of chiefs, to take with me to 
M. La Marquis de Vaudreuil as hostages, until the entire execution of our treaty, which 
they did. and I took them with me to Quebec. Besides I have re- united the othernations, at 
variance among themselves, and have left that country enjoying universal peace." 

The scene of De Louvigny's engagement was at the 
Little Butte des Morts, some thirty-seven miles above Green 

Bay. 

In 1725, De Louvigny, having gone to France, was there 
appointed governor of Three Rivers, and on his return the 
same year, lost his life by shipwreck near Louisburg on the 
night of August 27. 

GoY. Vaudreuil, in a letter to the council, dated October 
30, 1716, speaking of "the manner in which the Sieur De 
LouYiGNY put an end to the war with the Foxes," says of 
him : 

" He has always 5erved his coimtry with niTich distinction; but in his expedition against 
the Foxes, he signahzed himself still more by his valor, his capacity and his conduct, in 
which he displayed a great deal of prudence. He made the war short, but the peace which 
results from it will not be of short duration." 

The name, services and memory of the distinguished 
leader of this formidable military expedition into the very 
heart of Wisconsin, are necessarily and inseparably associ- 
ated with its primitive history. 

The confident belief of Vaudreuil, that the expedition 
had "' put an end to the war," and that the peace would " not 
be of short duration," soon proved to be without warrant. 

The Foxes, whom Bancroft characterizes as " a nation 
passionate and untamable, springing up into new life from 
every defeat, and though reduced in the number of their 
warriors, yet present everywhere, by their ferocious enter- 
prise and savage daring," failed to send deputies to the 
governor general. He flattered himself for a longtime that 
they would keep their plighted faith; but he was only 
taught by the renewal of hostilities that an enemy driven 
to a certain point, is always irreconcilable. During the 
twelve years that followed De Louyigny's expedition, all 
the peaceable efforts of the French to restrain the hostile 
conduct of the Foxes were unavailing. 



WARS WITH FOX INDIANS. 35 

In 1728, the governor of Canada sent a force of four hun- 
dred French troops, and eight or nine hundred Indians, 
principally Iroquois, Hurons, Nepissings and Ottawas, under 
the command of Sieur March and De Lignery, who, it is 
probable, had served under De Louvigny in his expedition 
against the Foxes in 1716, and who was now commissioned 
to go and destroy the Fox nations. 

De Lignery had previously, on the 7th of June, 172G, held 
a council at Green Bay with the Foxes, Sauks and Win- 
nebagoes in the presence of Monsieurs D'Amariton, Cligan- 
COURT and Rev. Father Chardon, in which the chiefs of the 
three nations all gave their words that they would maintain 
peace. But these treacherous and lying savages paid no 
regard to their plighted faith, and continued their robberies 
and butcheries as they had done before. 

The troops commanded by De Lignery commenced their 
march on the 5th of June, 1738, and taking the route of the 
Ottawa river and Lakes Nipissing and Huron, arrived at 
the fort at the mouth of Fox river on the night of the 17th 
of August. Father Crespel, who accompanied the expedi- 
tion as almoner of the four hundred Frenchmen, and who 
wrote an account of it, says: 

" Notwithstanding the precautious that had been taken to conceal our arrival, the sav- 
ages had received information of it, and all had escaped with the exception of four. These 
were presented to our savages who, after having diverted themselves with them, shot them 
to death with their arrows." 

The expedition continued up the Fox river as far as the por- 
tage of the Wisconsin; but none of the enemy could be found, 
except two women, a girl and an old man, who were killed 
and burned by the savages. De Lignery learned that the 
Foxes had fled four days before; that tlie old men, women 
and children had embarked in canoes, and the warriors had 
gone by land. He urged liis Indian allies to follow in pur- 
suit; but only a portion would consent, the others saying the 
enemy had gone so far that any attempt to catch up with 
them would be useless. 

The French had nothing but Indian corn to eat, the season 
was far advanced, and they had a distance of four hundred 
leagues to return, so that the safety of half the army was 
endangered by fvu'ther pursuit. It was, therefore, decided 
to burn the Fox villages, their forts and huts, and destroy 
all that could be found in their fields — corn, peas, beans and 
gourds, of which they had an abundance. Messrs. Beau- 



36 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

HARNOis and De Argemait, from whose letter to the French 
Minister of War of September 1, 1728, the foregoing facts are 
taken, add: 

" It is certain that half of these natives, who number four thousand souls, will die with 
hunger, and that they will come in and ask mercy." 

The want of success in this expedition of De Lignery 
was severely criticised by the local authorities of Canada, 
although he does not appear to have lost the confidence of 
the French government, which he continued to serve in 
various commands until 1759, when he led a force of 850 
French and 350 Indians to the relief of Fort Niagara, where 
the party was defeated, and he was wounded and taken 
prisoner, after which no further mention is made of him. 

Subsequently, probably in the autumn of 1729, a party of 
over two hundred Indians — Ottawas^ Chippewas, Menomo - 
nees and Winnebagoes — fell on a party of the Foxes, con- 
sisting of eighty men and three hundred women and 
children, who were returning from a buffalo hunt. The 
party was surprised, and all of the men except three, and 
all the women and children, were killed and burned, and 
twenty flat boats were destroyed. 

The Sieur Perriere Marin was a native of France of 
decided and energetic character, and was a prominent 
trader among the Sauks, and the Indians on the Mississippi. 
He had a place of deposit for goods and peltries on the left 
bank of the Mississippi, a short distance below the mouth of 
the Wisconsin, near what is now called Wyalusing, then 
called Fort Marin, and another near Mackinaw known by 
the same designation. Between these two places, Marin 
found it necessary to conduct an extensive traffic on the 
highways of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers; and his boats 
heavily laden with valuable cargoes were obliged often- 
times to pass the village and fort of the Foxes on the bank 
of the Fox river at the Little Butte des Morts, and as often 
to submit to the forced exactions of the Foxes, in the form 
of tribute. 

He was probably in command of the fort of the FoUes 
Avoine or Menomonees in 1730, and it is certain that he had 
great influence with the French and the, Indians who were 
hostile to the Foxes. 

These repeated piratical levies determined Marin to drive 
the marauding savages from their position. The traditional 
and other accounts of his valiant exploits leave some doubt 



WARS WITH FOX INDIANS. 37 

about the exact date of his first attack, but it was probably 
as early in the year 1730 as the breaking up of the ice would 
admit of the passage of boats up the river. 

Marin raised a volunteer force at Mackinaw, which was 
increased at Green Bay by the friendly Indians. All were 
embarked in boats, each having a full complement of men 
well armed, and an oil-cloth or tarpaulin large enough to 
cover the whole boat and conceal the men, such as was 
generally used to protect traders' goods from the effects of 
the weather. Near the Grand Chute, some three miles 
below, but not within view of the Little Butte des Morts, 
the party was divided, one portion going by land to the rear 
of the village to aid and support the attack, which was to 
be made in front by the others from the boats. The men in 
the boats, with their guns ready for use, Avere concealed by 
the coverings, and only two men to row each boat were in 
view, thus presenting the appearance of a trader's fleet. 

When the Foxes discovered the approach of the boats, 
they placed out their torch, and posted themselves thickly 
along the bank, and awaited the landing of the boats and 
the payment of the customary exactions. 

The boats having approached near enough for an effective 
attack, the tarpaulins were suddenly thrown off, and a 
deadly volley from the musketry of the soldiers, and the dis- 
charge from a swivel gun loaded with grape and canister 
shot, scattered death and dismay among the unsuspecting 
savages, to whom the number of their enemies seemed treble 
the reality. They fled precipitately to their village to pre- 
pare for defense, pursued by the troops. Here another horror 
confronted them. A Menomonee warrior had stealthily 
entered the village and set on fire the frail bark dwellings 
on the windward side, which were soon wrapped in a sheet 
of flame. The Foxes in vain sought safety in the forest; 
but were met by the party which had flanked their retreat, 
and they found themselves placed between two hostile fires. 
Then burst forth one heart-rending, agonized shriek, and the 
devoted band of free-booting Indians prepared to defend 
themselves with a courage born of despair. Ball and bay- 
onet now began their bloody work, and the tomahawk and 
scalping knife were active participants in the terrible work 
of death. No quarter was asked, and none was given. The 
time occupied by this bloody tragedy was not long; but in 
its strategy, surprise and sanguinary execution it probably 



38 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

has no parallel in the annals of Indian warfare. Most of the 
Foxes were killed or taken prisoners, but a few escaped up 
the river, and others were absent at the time of the engage- 
ment 

The same season the remnant of this savage tribe, having 
been driven from their village at the Little Butte des Morts, 
took post about three miles above the Great Butte des Morts, 
on the southern or opposite side ofthe river. 

From the letter of the Marquis De Beauharnois to the 
French Minister, dated June 25, 1730, it not only appears 
that the Sieur Marin had written to the Governor an ac- 
count "concerning the movement he made last March 
against the Foxes," but also that he (Marin) was present 
at a council held at Mackinaw, when the Menomonees and 
other friendly Indians invited Monsieur Du Buisson, who 
commanded the post, to place himself at their head and fall 
upon the nation of Foxes and destroy it entirely; that Du 
Buisson complied with their request, and that Sieur Marin 
went with him. The letter states that 

" This officer must have left his post (Mackinaw) the 20th of last May, with six hundred 
men, among whom are fifty Frenclimen." 

The only account of this expedition which is known to 
exist is the traditionary one, that a severe battle took place 
at the Great Butte des Morts and many Foxes were killed, 
though not so many as at the Little Butte des Morts, and 
that they were again forced to fly. 

On the 2d of November, 1730, Messrs. Be Beauharnois 
and HocQUART addressed a letter to the French Minister, in 
which they say that 

" An affair took place in September under the command of the Sievu- De Villiers, com- 
manding at the River St. Josephs, to whom were united tlie Sieur De Noyelle, command- 
ing the Miamis, and the Sieur De St. Ange, father and sou, with the French of that distant 
colony, together with those of our posts, and all the neighboring Indians our allies (we 
numbered from twelve to thirteen hundred men) which resulted in the almost total defeat 
of the Foxes. Two hundred of their warriors have been killed on the spot, or burned after 
being taken as .slaves, and six hundred women and children were absolutely destroyed." 

They add: 

" This is a brilliant action which sheds great honor on Sieur De Villiers . " 

The surviving Foxes located themselves on the northern 
bank of the Wisconsin river, about twenty miles above its 
mouth, and probably not far from the present village of 
Wauzeka. Marin was unwilling that they should remain 
here, where they could still obstruct his great thoroughfare, 
and collecting his tried and trusted band of French and In- 



WARS WITH FOX INDIANS. 39 

dians, he made a distant winter expedition against tliem. 
The Foxes were taken completely by surprise, and surround- 
ing the place with his followers, Marin came suddenly upon 
them, killed twenty warriors, and took all the others prison- 
ers, together with the women and children. Having fully 
conquered the Foxes, and having the last remnant of them 
in his power, Marin gave them their freedom, t»ut required 
them to retire beyond the Mississippi, which they did. 

The Sieur Marin was in command at Green Bay in 1754^ 
and received repeated evidences of the appreciation of his 
services by the French government previous to 1759, when 
he united with De Lignery in the attempt to relieve Fort 
Niagara, and shared in its defeat, and with him was taken 
prisoner. The surrender of Canada soon followed, when 
most likely he retired to the wilds of Wisconsin and resumed 
his old occupation of a fur trader. 

The date of the final expulsion of the Foxes from Wiscon- 
sin is involved in some obscurity, but the little light which 
can now be obtained appears to fix that event in the year 
of 174G. For thirty years or more the war between the 
French and the Foxes, with their allies, had been kept up 
in the heart of Wisconsin with more or less continuity, and 
with a determination and animosity rarely, if ever equalled. 

No apology can be necessary for the time devoted to the 
detail of the incidents of this long war, which forms so 
interesting a portion of Wisconsin's primeval history. 

The Sacs were the allies of the Foxes in this long French 
and Indian war, and many years later the two tribes 
became confederated and formed the nation known as the 
Sac and Fox Indians. 

At the time of the expulsion of the Foxes, the village 
of the Sacs was on the east side of Fox- river, near the pres- 
ent site of Green Bay where they had until that time de- 
meaned themselves well. About that time a difficulty arose 
between the French and the Sacs, growing out of a demand 
upon the Sacs to deliver up the few Foxes living among 
them, and of the delay of the Sacs in complying with it. 
The result Wiis that Captain De Velie, who had been in com- 
mand of the garrison at Green Bay, shot three of the Sac 
chiefs, and that the captain was shot in turn by a young 
Sac only twelve years old, named Ma-kau-Ta-pe-na-se, or 
the Black Bird, who subsequently became a distinguished 
chief among his people. 



40 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The garrison being reinforced and joined by the French 
settlers under the lead of Charles De Langlade, attacked 
the Sauk nation at their village, where a severe battle 
occurred, in which several were killed on both sides, and 
the Sauks driven away. 

The Sauks now retired to the "Wisconsin river, and located 
upon that beautiful plateau of table land, upon which the 
twin villages of Prairie du Sac and Sauk City are located, 
where they had a fine village with comfortable houses. 
They were living here in 170G, when Carver visited the 
country, but must have left soon after, as in 1795, according 
to the authentic statement of Augustin Grignon, the vil- 
lage appeared to have been several years deserted, and there 
were then only a few remains of fire-places and posts to be 
seen. 

Mr. Edward Tanner, in a paper published in the Detroit 
Gazette in January, 1819, states that he visited the Sauks 
on the Mississippi river about four hundred miles above 
St. Louis, in August, 1818, and that " they emigrated from 
the Wisconsin about thirty-five years ago, approximately 
fixing the period of their migration about 1783. 

It seems probable, judging by the dim light to be derived 
from any authentic history and from tradition, that the 
Foxes and Sauks having become confederates, wrested f roin 
the Illinois their possessions, and incorporating the rem- 
nant which they spared of that numerous tribe, with their 
own, occupied the territory which had been the home of the 
Illinois. The principal seat of their power was the country 
about the mouth of Rock river, from whence in 1831, and 
more formidably and effectively in 1833, they made those 
forays upon the pioneer settlers of Illinois and Wisconsin, 
which resulted in what is generally known as the Black 
Hawk war. 



THE LANGLADE FAMILY. 41 



CHAPTER III. 

THE LANGLADE FAMILY. 

Biography forms no part of the design of this work, except 
as it tends to present or explain historical facts. But not to 
give some account of the family that made the first perma- 
nent settlement in Wisconsin would be an unjustifiable 
omission. 

The family of the De Langlades was of the nobility of 
France and had their castle. New France was the great 
and captivating field of enterprise for the younger nobility 
of France whose inheritance was limited, and whose ambi- 
tion for fame or desire for wealth suggested new fields of 
adventure. Augustin Be Langlade was born in France 
about 1095. As early as 1720 he was engaged in the Indian 
trade among the Ottawas, near Mackinaw, and probably had 
the entire control of the trade at that important point. He 
was married at Mackinaw, very soon after he came there, to 
the sister of the head Ottawa chief. King Nis-so-wa-quet, 
or as the French called him. La Fourche — The Fork, which 
alliance contributed largely to his influence among that 
nation. 

Their eldest child was a daughter, born in 1723, named 
Agate, whose first husband, Souligny, having died, leaving 
her no child, she married Amable Roy, with whom she lived 
at Green Bay. where she died at a great age, never having 
had any children. 

Their second child was born in 1724 at the Ottawa village 
near Mackinaw, and was a son named Charles, who be- 
came greatly distinguished. 

There were two younger sons, who fell with Montcalm 
before Quebec, and whose names have not been preserved; 
also a daughter, who married a Mr. De Verville, and who 
had one son named Gautier. 

While living at Mackinaw, Charles Be Langlade had a 
son, the result of a morganatic marriage with an Ottawa 
woman. He named this son for himself, recognized and 
educated him; and he had two sons, one of whom was a 
lieutenant in the British service, and two daughters, but 
none of them ever lived in Wisconsin. 

It is very likely that Sieur Augustin Be Langlade ac- 



42 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

companied De Lignery's expedition against the Foxes in 
1728. If he did not, he of course heard the account given 
by the officers, soldiers and Ottawas on their return, of the 
country in which they had been, and perhaps was invited 
to locate and trade there by the Indians residing there. 
Moreover, being engaged by the government in the Indian 
department, it is quite likely he was directed to locate west 
of Lake Michigan, the better to attend to the interests of the 
Indians. Whether any or all of these reasons prevailed upon 
him or not, it is well authenticated that in 1745 the Sieur 
AuGUSTiN Langlade, with his wife and son Charles, and 
probably also their younger children, left Mackinaw and 
migrated to Green Bay, where they remained till they died 
at advanced ages, and were when they came thither the 
only persons within the present boundaries of our state 
whose occupancy acquired any degree of permanency. 

When AuGUSTiN De Langlade removed to Green Bay, he 
was fifty years old; he continued in the pursuit of his 
agency for and trade with the Indians without any remark- 
able incidents until 1771, when he died and was buried in 
the old cemetery at Green Bay. 

But a more active, exciting and hazardous career was to 
attend the life of his energetic, hardy, impulsive but brave 
and resolute son, Charles, whose name deserves to stand 
high in the roll of the French heroes of the wars in which 
that nation was engaged near the middle of the eighteenth 
century. 

This son, the Sieur Charles De Langlade, was on the 
12th of August, 1754, married at Mackinaw to Charlotte 
BouRASSA, the daughter of Rene Bourassa, a retired voya- 
geur living at Mackinaw. The marriage certificate is signed 
by the Roman Catholic priest. Father M. L. Le Franc, and 
witnessed by M. Herein, commandant of the post and four- 
teen others. Madam Langlade continued to reside at 
Mackinaw from the time of her marriage until 1760, when 
she left the comparatively civilized society of Mackinaw, to 
reside with her husband in the solitudes of Green Bay, 
where she continued to live until 1818, when she died at the 
age of seventy -five years. 

The French war broke out in 1754; Charles De Langlade 
had only a short time previously led the French settlers 
against the Sacs, who, aided by re-enforcements from the 
garrison, had expelled those Indians from the Fox river and 



THE LANGLADE FAMILY. 43 

driven them to the banks of the Wisconsin. His stanclino- 
and reputation for bravery and discretion were established. 
At the commencement of this war, De Langlade was but 
thirty years of age; but his high character, his experience 
in border service for twenty years — for his war exploits 
commenced at the age of ten — his personal relationship to 
the powerful Ottawas, his knowledge of their language 
and that of the other neighboring tribes, and his great 
influence over them, conspired to induce the Marquis Vau- 
DREUIL, governor-general of New France and Louisiana, to 
select him to raise the tribes of the JSTorthvvest and to place 
him at the head of the partisan forces of the border French 
and Indians, in the great and savage conflict about to com- 
mence. The force under the command of De Langlade, 
besides the French, was composed of Ottawas, Chippewas, 
Menomonees, Winnebagoes, Pottawottamies, Hurons or 
Wyandotts, and perhaps others, among whom were La- 
Fourche and Pontiac, and numbered not far from fifteen 
hundred. They repaired at once to Fort Du Quesne for its 
defense against the English, and also to carry the war 
against the frontier settlements and forts of the British 
colonies. The story of Braddock's defeat and sanguinary 
repulse in his confident attempt to capture Fort Du Quesne 
from the French, when his splendid army, freshly imported 
from England, were within ten miles of the coveted prize, 
is too well known to all familiar with American history, to 
justify a detailed repetition of it. While history justly 
ascribes the result largely, if not chiefly, to the effective aid 
of the Indian allies of the French, it has nowhere done full 
justice to the Sieur Charles De Langlade, to whose impor- 
tunities it was due that De Beaujeu consented to enter 
into the fight at all. The English got to the south bank of 
the Monongahela about noon, halted and prepared for din- 
ner, while the French and Indians were secreted on the 
opposite side of the river. De Langlade went to De 
Beaujeu and told him no time should be lost, but that the 
attack should at once be commenced. The French com- 
mander made no reply. De Langlade then called the 
chiefs together, and induced them to demand orders to com- 
mence the battle. Still no such orders could be obtained. 
Again De Langlade went himself and urged the necessity 
of at once commencing the atto,ck, saying to De Beaujeu, 
that if he did not intend to fight at all, it was well to act as 



44 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

he did, but if fighting was to be done, then was the time to 
do it, while the Enghsh were eating with their arms laid 
aside, or while attempting to cross the river; that no other 
so good an opportunity could occur, and that the English 
were too powerful to be met in open battle. De Beaujeu 
was much disheartened, seeing the strength of the English, 
and seemed in great doubt what to do, but at length 
gave orders to commence the attack. The action was at 
once commenced and the English officers who had their 
napkins pinned over their breasts, seized their arms and 
took part in the conflict, and a good many of them were 
killed with these napkins pinned on their coats, showing 
how suddenly they rushed into the battle. De Beaujeu 
was killed, but the French and Indian loss was very small. 
Of this battle Bancroft says, speaking of the English: 

" Of eighty -six officers, twenty-six were killed, and thirty-seven were wounded. Of the 
men, one-half were killed or wounded. Braddock braved every danger; he had five horses 
disabled under him; at last a bullet entered his right side and he fell mortally wounded. His 
secretary was shot dead; both his English aids were disabled early in the engagement, 
leaving the American alone to distribute his orders. Of privates, seven hundred and four- 
teen were killed or wounded, while of the French and Indians only three officers and thirty 
men fell, and but as many more were wounded." 

On the 9th of August, 1756, De Langlade received orders 
from Chevalier Dumais, commandant of Du Quesne, to go 
with a party of French and Indians, and make a strike at 
Fort Cumberland, and learn whether the English were 
making any movement in the direction of the Ohio. 

In the year 1757, De Langlade was employed in Canada, 
and served under Montcalm. With his faithful, but savage 
Indian followers, he rendered efficient service to that gal- 
lant French officer in the investment and final capture on 
the 9th of August of Fort William Henry at the head of 
Lake George. 

On the Sth of September, 1757, Vaudreuil issued an order 
of that date to 

" SiEUR Langlade, ensign of the troops, detached from the marine, to start from this 
city (Montreal) immediately for the post of Michilimackinac, there to serve in the capacity 
of second in command under the orders of M. De Beaujeu, commandant at that post." 

The following year he returned to Canada at the head of 
his French and Indian force and shared the dangers and 
services of that hard campaign. He and his followers 
formed a large and useful part of the troops stationed at 
Ticonderoga, when the British under General Abercrombie, 
passing through Lake George, undertook on the Sth of 



THE LANGLADE FAMILY. 45 

July, 1758, to drive the French, in which attempt they met 
with the most disastrous failure, wiien, " after losing," 
according to Bancroft, " in killed and wounded, nineteen 
hundred and sixty -seven, chiefly regulars, they fled pro- 
miscuously." 

After the hard service at Ticonderoga he repaired with 
his trusty band to Fort Du Quesne, which was then threat- 
ened by the enemy, and participated in the defeat of Major 
Grant, near the fort, who was attacked on the 14th of Sep- 
tember by a large body of French and Indians, under the 
superior command of the gallant Aubry. 

About two months later the youthful Washington with a 
brigade of provincials drew near Du Quesne; when the dis- 
heartened garrison, about five hundred in number, set the 
fort on fire and by the light of the conflagration descended 
the Ohio. On the 25th of November, 1758, the banners of 
England floated over the Ohio, and the place was with one 
voice named Pittsburgh. De Langlade then probably re- 
turned to Green Bay, and remained for the winter. 

No ofiicer of the French king was more ready to do battle 
for his sovereign than De Langlade, who participated in 
all the most important and tlie final engagements of the 
campaign of 1759. He aided in the defense of Fort Niagara, 
and was present at its capitulation on the 25th of July. 

In the great and decisive battle before Quebec on the 
plains of Abraham, on the 13th of September, when Mont- 
calm and Wolfe each gave his life for the countries they 
respectively loved and served so well, our hero, in whose 
veins coursed the mingled blood of the French and the 
Ottawa, sustained by large numbers of both, devoted his 
powerful efforts to sustain the expiring dominion of France 
in his native Canada. He passed through this severe con- 
flict without a wound, while many of his followers were 
either killed or wounded. Among the killed were his two 
younger brothers, whose loss he deeply mourned. He was 
among the number who thought there was no real necessity 
for the surrender and believing it was effected through 
bribery, retired from the place with his surviving followers 
in disgust. 

On the 3d of September, 1760, while De Langlade was 
at Montreal, having received a commission as lieutenant 
from the king, he received specific instructions from Gov. 
Vaudreuil to take charge of and conduct the troops under 



46 HISTOEY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

his command to Mackinaw and the Indians to their villages. 
Six days later a dispatch was sent to him by Vaudreuil, 
notifying him of the surrender of ail Canada to the British, 
under Gen. Amherst. 

The contest between France and Great Britain for domin- 
ion in America was now ended. At this day it is difficult to 
realize the hardships attendant upon such a partisan service 
as that in which De Langlade was engaged, with such 
long and constant marches of thousands of miles through a 
wilderness country, relying mainly upon wild game for a 
sustenance. Had the French been successful, his name and 
fame would doubtless have been more conspicuous in history. 

De Langlade had but two children by his marriage. The 
eldest, Lallotte, born in 1760 or 1761, was married to Mr. 
Barcellow, but died the next year childless. The other, 
DoM [TELLE, born in 1763, was married to Pierre Grignon, 
Sen., in 1776. 

Upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, Charles 
De Langlade, then fifty-two years old, was persuaded by 
Capt. De Peyster, commanding at Mackinaw, to take an 
active part in the war should his services be needed, which, 
De Peyster remarks in his Miscellanies, was equivalent to 
" securing all the Western Indians in our interests." He 
raised a large body of Indians from several different tribes, 
and marched for Montreal. He went to Canada with his 
Indian force several times during the war, and at one time 
served under Gen. Campbell. In 1779 De Langlade and his 
followers, with the Indians from Milwaukee, whom he had 
induced to join him, attended a grand council which De 
Peyster had called at I'Arbre Croche, near Mackinaw, for 
the purpose of making a diversion towards Vincennes and 
Fort Chartres in favor of Gov. Hamilton at Detroit. After 
the council, De Langlade with his Indian force embarked 
upon Lake Michigan, and upon arriving at St. Josephs, they 
learned of Hamilton's surrender, and returned much dis- 
satisfied. 

It does not appear that De Langlade was engaged in 
many, if any battles during the Revolutionary war. In- 
deed, there was no active service for him to perform in the 
Northwest, as there were no expeditions by the Americans 
in that quarter. 

From the close of the French war to the end of the Revo- 
lutionary war, Charles De Langlade by appointment of 



JONATHAN CARVER'S EXPLORATIONS. 47 

the British authorities had the siiperintendency of the Indians 
of the Green Bay Department. After the close of the Rev- 
ohitionary war the same superintendency appears to have 
continued indefinitely. He also had command of the militia 
composed of the simple hearted people of the settlement, by 
whom he was most affectionately reverenced and honored. 
He spent the remainder of his days at Green Bay, receiving 
an annuity from the British government of eight hundred 
dollars, as half pay for his services during the American 
Revolution, and died in January, 1800, at the age of seventy- 
five years, and was buried beside his father in the cemetery 
at Green Bay. 

Pierre Grignon, Sen., by his marriage with Domitelle 
De Langlade, had seven sons and two daughters. One of 
the sons was Augustin Grignon, born June 27, 1780, from 
Avhose "• Recollections," noted down from his lips in 1857 by 
Mr. Draper, secretary of the State Historical Society, most 
of the foregoing statements in relation to the Langlade 
family, have been literally transcribed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JONATHAN carver's EXPLORATIONS 

A new^ era in the history of the West commenced with the 
year 17G3. By the treaty of Paris made in that year, all the 
claims of the French to the country watered by the Ohio and 
the Mississippi, and all the French possessions, were ceded 
to Great Britain. By a secret treaty however, made on the 
same day the definitive articles of the treaty of Paris had 
been signed (November 3, 1762), France ceded to Spain all 
Louisiana west of the Mississippi and the island of Orleans. 
So that Great Britain, when the treaty w^as concluded, Feb- 
ruary 10, 17G3, acquired the country east of the Mississippi, 
which river was to remain equally free to the subjects of 
Great Britain and France. 

Soon after the vast acquisition of territory gained by 
Great Britain from the French, Capt. Jonathan Carver 
resolved to explore the interior parts of North America and 



48 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

to penetrate to the Pacific ocean, over that broad part of the 
continent which lies between tlie 43d and 4Gth degrees of 
north hxtitude, and he hoped to discover a northwest pas- 
sage from Hudson's Bay to tlie Pacific. A journal of this 
exploration was published in 1778. Carver was born in the 
town of Canterbury, Connecticut, in the year 1732. He 
served in the Canadian campaign of 1755, was subsequently 
with General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec, and the 
capture of Montreal and conquest of Canada under General 
Amherst. He was at the massacre of Fort William Henry 
in 1757. A battalion of light infantry was raised in Massa- 
chusetts in 1758, for the invasion of Canada, in one of the 
companies of which he served as lieutenant, and in 1760, he 
was advanced to the captaincy of a company in Col, John 
Whitcomb's regiment of foot. In 17G2, he commanded a 
company of foot in Col. Saltonstall's regiment, and the 
year after the peace of Versailles, he retired from the service. 

In June, 170G, he set out from Boston to carry out his 
resolution to explore the Northwest, and proceeded by way of 
Albany and Niagara to Mackinaw, where he arrived the 
1st of September. He there made arrangements with Gov. 
Rogers for a suitable supply of goods for presents to the 
Indians on his route, and having received a part, with a 
promise that the remainder should be sent forward to meet 
him at the falls of St. Anthony, he proceeded on the 3d of 
September, and pursuing the usual route to Green Bay, 
arrived there on the 18th. 

Capt. Carver left Green Bay on the 20th of September, 
in company with several traders, and ascended Fox river, 
arriving on the 25th at an island, on which was the great 
town of the Winnebagoes, now known as Doty's Island. 
The principal chief of this tribe was a woman, who had 
married a Frenchman named De Kaury, who had been 
mortally wounded at Quebec and died at Montreal; so that 
the Queen was a widow at this time. Her descend- 
ants, the De Kaury's, have long figured as distinguished 
chiefs of the Winnebagoes. The town contained fifty 
houses, which were strongly built with palisades. 

Having remained four days, during which he was treated 
with great civility, and entertained in a distinguished man- 
ner, having made some presents to the chiefess, he left on 
the 29th, and on the 7th of October arrived at the portage of 
the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. 



JONATHAN CARVER'S EXPLORATIONS. 49 

On the 9th, the party arrived at the great town of the 
Saukies, now known as Prairie du Sac, which our explorer 
describes as the largest and best built Indian town he ever 
saw. It contained, he says, about ninety houses, each large 
enough for several families, built of hewn plank, neatly 
jointed and covered so completely with bark, as to keep out 
the most penetrating rains. Before the doors were placed 
comfortable sheds in which the inhabitants sat, when the 
weather would permit, and smoked their pipes. The streets 
were both regular and spacious, appearing more like a 
civilized town than the abode of savages. This large and 
well-built Indian town, the traveler's description of which, 
it must be confessed, appears somewhat exaggerated, had 
but a brief existence, for in less than thirty years only a 
few remains of fire-places and posts were to be seen. 

The Sacs had about three hundred warriors who extended 
their excursions into the territories of the Illinois and 
Pawnee nations. Capt. Carver says: 

" Whilst I stayed here, I took a view of some mountains, that he about fifteen miles to 
the southward, and abound in lead ore (probably the Blue Mounds). I ascended on one 
of the highest of these, and had an extensive view of the country. For many miles nothing 
was to be seen but lesser 'mountains, which appeared at a distance like hay-cocks, they 
being free from trees. So plentiful is lead here that I saw large quantities of it lying about 
the streets, in the town belonging to the Sauldes, and it seemed to be as good as the 
produce of other countries. 

" On the 10th of October (he says) we proceeded down the river, and the next day reached 
the first tOTvn of the Ottiganmies (Fox Indians). This town contained about fifty houses, 
but we found most of them deserted, on account of an epidemical disorder that had lately 
raged among them, and carried off more than one-half of the inhabitants . The greater part 
of those who survived had retired into the woods to avoid the contagion." 

This town is supposed to have been where Muscoda is. 
When within about five miles of the mouth of the Wiscon- 
sin he discovered the ruins of another village, and learned 
that it had been deserted about thirty years before, and that 
the inhabitants soon after built a town on the Mississippi river 
near the mouth of the Wisconsin, at a place called by the 
French La Prairie des Chiens. It w^as a large town, and 
contained about three hundred families. It was the great 
mart where furs and peltries w^ere annually brought about 
the last of May from the remote branches of the Mississippi, 
and where it was determined by a general council of the 
chiefs whether to dispose of them to traders there, or to 
transport them either to Mackinaw or to Louisiana. 

The traders with Carver took up their residence for the 
4 



50 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

winter at the mouth of Yellow River, about ten miles above 
Prairie du Chien, on the opposite bank of the Mississippi, 
while he with one voyageur and a Mohawk Indian, pushed 
on in his canoe towards the Falls of St. Anthony. 

He passed Mount Tremealeau, which he described, and on 
the first of November arrived at Lake Pepin, where he sars 
he observed the ruins of a French factory, where Capt. St. 
Pierre resided and carried on a very great trade with the 
Naudowissies, before the reduction of Canada. It was here 
the first trading houses north of the Illinois River were 
erected. (As early as 1G87, Nicholas Perrot was trading in 
the neighborhood of the Sioux, and according to Charlevoix, 
he built a fort near the mouth of the lake.) 

The pre-historic tumuli, which are found in so many 
places near the banks of the Mississippi, did not escape the 
observation of Carver, and he was the first to call the atten- 
tion of the civilized world to their existence. 

He first made the acquaintance of the Dakota Indians 
near the mouth of the St. Croix River, probably near Pres- 
cott' and had tire good fortune to make a treaty of peace 
between that nation and the Chippewas, at a time when an 
engagement was imminent, in return for which kindly act 
the Indians bestowed upon him every possible attention. 

In his further progress he came to a remarkable cave on 
the bank of the Mississippi, about thirty miles below the 
Falls of St. Anthony, of which he says: 

" Tbe entrance is about ten feet wide, with a height of five feet, and a breadth of thirty 
feet . About twenty feet from the entrance begins a lake which extends to an unsearch- 
able distance." 

The walls he describes as being a soft stone, upon which 
■were cut many ancient hieroglyphics, and the cave was be- 
lieved by the Indians to be the dwelling of the " Great 
Spirit," It has been materially altered by the action of the 
elements, the roof has fallen in, and the entrance has been 
choked up by rock and earth; so that in 1820, Schoolcraft 
was led into the error of supposing that the cave near St. 
Paul, now known as the " Fountain Cave," was the one 
described by Carver. The track of a railroad runs along 
the bank of the river directly in front of the cave, in the 
construction of which the cave is virtually destroyed, and 
the stream which flowed through it now supplies a water- 
tank, while the subterranean lake has disappeared. 

On reaching the mouth of the St. Peters river, ten miles 



JONATHAN CARVER'S EXPLORATIONS. 51 

below the falls of St. Anthony, called by the natives Wad- 
da-paw- naen-e-so-tor, the ice became so troublesome that he 
left his canoe, and walked to the Falls of St. Anthony where 
he arrived I^^ovember 17tli. He gives a very particular 
description of them, accompanied by a copper-plate engrav- 
ing, from which it would seem that a constant recession of 
the rock has been going on, which has gradually reduced 
the height of the fall, and that in ages long past, this sub- 
lime cataract of the Mississippi, thundering in its solitude, 
was not far from ths mural cliffs, upon which were erected 
the barracks of the garrison at Fort Snelling. 

This persevering explorer continued on foot, until he 
reached the river St. Francis or Elk river, about sixty miles 
above the falls, but as the season was far advanced, he 
returned, and on the 2oth of November commenced with 
his canoe the ascent of the St. Peters river, now called the 
Minnesota, which he found free from ice, and proceeded 
some two hundred miles to the country of the Naudowissies, 
or Sioux of the plains, which was the western limit of his 
travels. With these Indians he spent five months, and was 
well treated. He learned their language, and acquired all 
the geographical information they could impart. 

Capt. Carver left his hibernal abode the latter end of 
April and descended to the Mississippi, escorted by nearly 
three hundred Indians, among whom were many chiefs. It 
was the habit of these bands to go annually at this season 
to the great cave, to hold a grand council with all the other 
bands. Carver, on this occasion, was admitted to the grand 
council, and made a speech which is published in his travels. 
This was on the 1st of May, 1707. 

At this time, as claimed by his heirs and their assignees, 
two of the chiefs of the Naudowissies gave to Capt. Carver 
a deed of a large tract of land lying in Wisconsin and Min- 
nesota, bounded as follows: 

" From tUe Falls of St. Anthony, runniiis on the east bank of the Jlississippi nearly south- 
east as far as the south end of Lake Pepin, where the Chippewa river joins the Mississippi, 
and from thence eastward, five days' travel, accounting twenty English miles per day, and 
from theuce north six days" travel at twenty F-nccHsh miles per day, and from thence again 
to the Falls of St. Anthony, on a direct straight line." 

These boundaries extend east to the range line between 
ranges 3 and 4 east, north to the south line of Douglass 
county and south to th'> '-^outh line of Clark county, and em- 
brace the whole of the counties of Pepin, Pierce, St. Croix, 



52 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Barron, Dunn, Eau Claire, Clark, Chippewa, Washburn, 
Sawyer, Price, and Taylor, with parts of Buffalo, Trempea- 
leau, Jackson, Wood, Marathon, Lincoln, Burnett, Polk and 
Ashland, with a part of Minnesota, and contain an area of 
about fourteen thousand square miles. 

Whether such a deed was ever made, and is not a mere 
fiction, has given rise to many well-founded doubts. It is 
not spoken of by Carver in his "Journal" of his travels. 
However the fact may be, it is well known that the Naudo- 
wissies, or Sioux of the plains, had no claim to any territory 
east of the Great River, and as the two Indians by whom 
this deed purports to have been signed were chiefs of this 
tribe, they were granting that to which they had no claim. 

If the authenticity of the deed be conceded, as well as 
the validity of the title of the grantors, the transaction was 
in direct violation of the proclamation of his king, made 
less than three years before, of which Capt. Carver was 
no doubt aware, which strictly enjoined and required that 
no private person should presume to make any purchase 
of any land from any Indian. 

A petition of the heirs of Carver and their assignees, 
for the recognition of the validity of their title under this 
grant, appears to have been presented to congress as early 
as 1806, and referred to a committee of the senate, but no 
report seems to have been made. Subsequently, January 
23, 1823, Mr. Van Dyke, from the committee on public 
lands, submitted to the senate a report upon a like peti- 
tion, concluding with a resolution, that the prayer of the 
petitioners ought not to be granted. 

A similar petition was presented to the next congress, 
and on the 28th of January, 1825, a report was made by 
Mr. Campbell of Ohio, from the committee on private land 
claims, which contains a most exhaustive discussion of all 
the questions involved, and demonstrates most conclusivel}^ 
that there was no foundation for the pretended claim, and 
that it was utterly worthless. 

In a letter from Lord Palmerston, dated February 8, 1834, 
to Hon. Aaron Vail, then charge d'affaires of the United 
States to Great Britain, is the statement in reference to this 
claim that 

" No trace has been found of any ratification of the grant in question by His Majesty's 
government." 

A claim of somewhat the same kind was made by the 



JONATHAN CARVER'S EXPLORATIONS. r)3 



Oo 



" Illinois and Wabash Land Company," for a large territory 
in Illinois, under a grant claimed to have been made to 
William Murray in 1773, and met a like fate at the hands 
of congress as the Carver claim. 

The validity of claims founded on actual settlement and 
improvement, without other pretended title, has been recog- 
nized by the United States government. Of this character 
were all the claims to lands at Green Bay and Prairie du 
Chien, which, on examination, have been confirmed by the 
general government. 

In continuing the account of the travels of Capt. Carver, 
it appears that having first ascertained that the goods which 
Gov. Rogers had promised to send to the Falls of St. An- 
thony for him, had not arrived, he decided to return to 
Prairie du Chien, abandoning for the present his original 
plan of proceeding further to the Northwest. Here he ob- 
tained from the traders what goods they could spare, but as 
they were not sufficient, he determined to make his way 
across the country of the Chippewas to Lake Superior, where 
he hoped to meet the traders that annually went from 
Mackinaw to the Northwest, from whom he thought he 
should be able to obtain what goods he required. 

In the month of June Carver left Prairie du Chien, and 
leaving the Mississippi River, he ascended the Chippewa, 
near the head waters of which he found a Chipijewa village, 
composed of forty houses adjacent to a small lake. He left 
this village in July, and having crossed a number of small 
lakes and portages that intervened, came to a head branch of 
the St. Croix River — probably the Namekagon. This branch 
he descended to a fork, and then ascended another — proba- 
bly one of the Totogatics — to its source. On both these 
branches, he discovered, as he says, several mines of virgin 
copper, very pure. That many of the outcrops of rock upon 
these branches are cupriferous has been shown by the ex- 
plorations of the late geological survey of the state, but 
" mines of virgin copper " will be developed only as the 
result of more labor than has yet been bestowed upon them. 

From this last branch he made a portage to a stream 
which flowed into Lake Superior. Descending this he 
coasted around the western extremity of the lake, and 
finally arrived at the Grand Portage on the north shore. 
Here, although he obtained much information about the 
lakes and rivers lying to the northwest, he could not pro- 



o4 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. • 

cure the goods he wanted, and was compelled to give up 
the one great object of his travels, and return to Mackinaw, 
where he arrived the beginning of November, He spent 
the winter at Mackinaw, and returned to Boston the follow- 
ing year, having been absent two years and five months, and 
traversed seven thousand miles. 



CHAPTER V. 



PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST, AND TRANS- 
FER TO BRITISit JURISDICTION. 

The history of the war. with the Outagamies on Fox River 
after their failure to destroy Detroit in 1712, naturally led to 
an account of the De Langlades and of events intimately 
connected with them, causing a digression from the chron- 
ological narrative which had been attempted and which 
will now be resumed. 

During the first half of the eighteenth century, the prog- 
ress of settlement and industry in the Wabash country was 
very considerable. As early as 1705 fifteen thousand skins 
and hides had been sent to Mobile for the European market. 
In 17i(J the French population of that fertile region kept up 
a lucrative trade with Mobile, by means of traders and voy- 
ageiirs. Agriculture soon began to flourish, and in 1746, six 
hundred barrels of flour were manufactured and shipped to 
New Orleans, besides large quantities of hides, peltry, tallow 
and beeswax. 

In 1730 the Illinois country, not including the Wabash 
valley, contained one hundred and forty French families, 
besides about six hundred converted Indians, many traders, 
voyageurs and couriers du hois. About twenty years later 
(1751) it contained six distinct settlements, with their re- 
spective villages. These were Cahokia, St. Philip, Fort 
Chartres, Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rochier, and St. Genevieve. 
Kaskaskia in its best days, under the French regime, con- 
tained two or three thousand inhabitants, but under British 
dominion the population in 1773 had decreased to four hun- 
dred and fifty souls. 

The ambition of the French was to preserve the possession 



PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST. 55 

of all important points in the Northwest, and to prevent the 
slightest attempt of the English to occupy any part of the 
territory west of the Alleghanies^ and French commanders 
had avowed the purpose of seizing every Englishman within 
the Ohio Valley. In 1753 the Ohio company opened a road 
into the western valley, and Gist established a plantation 
near the Youghiogeny, where eleven families settled, and a 
town and fort were marked out on Shurtee's creek. 

Gov, DiNWiDDiE, fearful for the safety of these pioneer 
settlers upon the western dominion of Virginia, in Novem- 
ber, 1753, sent Washington — then twenty-one, to the 
commander of the French forces on the Ohio river, to 
know his reasons for invading the British dominions. 
The commander, Gardeur De St. Perre, refused to dis- 
cuss questions of right. "I am here," said he, "by the 
orders of my general, to which I shall conform with exact- 
ness and resolution."' AVashington hastened homeward to 
Virginia, where, after many hardships and dangers, he 
arrived in January, 1754. Washington's report was followed 
by immediate activity. The Virginians had commenced a 
fort at the forks of the Ohio, which, on the 17th of April, 
they surrendered to the superior forces of the French, who 
occupied and fortified it and named it Du Quesne, from the 
governor of New France. Pittsburg now occupies its site. 
On the S7th of May, Washington, followed by only forty 
raw recruits and a few Mingo allies, coming upon the 
French, himself fired the first hostile gun, wdiich kindled 
the world into a fiame, and was the signal for the great 
French w^ar which ensued. The engagement was short. 
Ten of the French, among them Jumonville, the com- 
mander of the party, were killed, and twenty-one made pris- 
oners. 

On the first day of July, Washington, not being reinforced 
as he expected, was compelled to fall back upon Fort Neces- 
^ty, a rude stockade at Great Meadows. Here for nine 
hours the fire of the French was returned, when, at last, 
after thirty of the English and but three of the French were 
killed, terms of capitulation were accepted. On the 4th day 
of July, the English garrison, retaining all its effects, with- 
drew from the basin of the Ohio, and no standard but that 
of France floated in the whole valley of the Mississippi to 
its head springs in the Alleghanies. 

The next year the contest for the possession of Fort Du 



56 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Quesne was renewed, and Gen. Braddock's signal defeat on 
the banks of the Monongahela occurred on the 9th of July, 
1755. From that period to the victory of Gen, Wolfe at 
Quebec in September 1759, various engagements had taken 
place between the English and French with various for- 
tunes. At length, on the 8th of September, 17G0, Ticonderoga, 
Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec having previously fallen, 
Montreal, Detroit and all Canada were given up to the 
English by the French governor, and the principal posts 
on the Ohio passed into the possession of the English. The 
post of Detroit was given by the French into the hands of 
Major Rogers on the 25th of iSTovember, 1760, and from this 
period the French power in this region was forever over- 
thrown. 

The affection of the Indians for the French was deeply 
rooted, and by the commingling of blood, created the strong 
ties of nature between them, which even now continues. 
Through all the changes in the country that time has 
wrought, the French language still partially holds its place, 
and this is especially observable in the vicinity of Green 
Bay and Prairie du Chien. 

The first settlements made by the French on the east side 
of the Mississippi river were at Cahokia, St. Phillips, La 
Prairie du Rocher and Kaskaskia. The first is situated 
nearly opposite to St. Louis, and contained about one hun- 
dred and twenty houses; the second became extinct; the third 
is about twelve miles above Kaskaskia and contained thirty- 
two houses. Kaskaskia is situated about seven miles up a 
river of the same name, though not more than three miles 
from the Mississippi, nearly opposite to St. Genevieve, and 
about fifty-five miles below Cahokia. This village was once 
considered as the capital of the country, and was rich and 
populous and contained two thousand or three thousand in- 
habitants, but under the British dominion as late as 1772, it 
contained only five hundred whites and as many blacks, 
and at a later period it was reduced to forty-five families. 
This loss of population was occasioned largely by its being 
transferred to the west side of the Mississippi, principally 
to St. Louis. Two causes mainly produced this result. The 
first was the ordinance of 1787 which prohibited slavery 
in the Northwestern Territory. The slave-holders were 
disposed to retain their slaves, and to do it effectually, they 
abandoned their ancient habitations and joined their friends 



PEOGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST. 57 

ill the then dominions of Spain. The second was the rup- 
ture in 1797, when an attack from Canada was projected on 
the Spanish possessions along the Mississippi river. At this 
period Spain was bound to evacuate all her military posts on 
the east side of that river to the north of the 31st degree of 
north latitude, and Upper Louisiana was the only barrier 
she had to oppose the descent of the English. The distance 
of this province from the capital, added to a wilderness of 
nearly a thousand miles in extent between them, seemed to 
point out the necessity of strengthening it, and she con- 
ceived it good policy to populate it by citizens of the United 
States. 

Additional prospects were therefore held out to settlers, 
and pains were taken to disseminate them in every direc- 
tion. Large quantities of land were granted them, with no 
other cost than office fees and surveys, which were moder- 
ate. This accounts for the rapid settlement of Upper 
Louisiana, three fifths of the population of which, in 1804, 
consisted of English Americans. 

In the time of Father Charlevoix, 1721, Kaskaskia con- 
tained a Jesuit college, the ruins of which remained a cen- 
tury later. 

All the four villages east of the Mississippi were founded 
about the year 1083 by La Salle or his followers. They 
were all, as were the intermediate settlements, situated on 
a fertile bottom, which commences at the mouth of the Kas- 
kaskia river and extends nearly to the Illinois, a distance of 
about eighty miles, about four to six miles wide, now called 
the " American Bottom." It is bounded in the rear by a 
ridge of lime-rock, which in many places is perpendicular 
and 150 to 200 feet in height. 

While the French were in possession of the country they 
built several forts. One at Kaskaskia, which is wlioll}^ 
destroyed. 

They also had one on the Ohio, about thirty-six miles from 
the Mississippi, which the Indians took by a curious strat- 
agem. A number of them appeared in the day-time on the 
opposite side of the river, each of whom was disguised with 
a bear-skin, and walked on all fours. The French supposed 
them to be bears, and crossed the river in pursuit of them. 
The troops who did not cross left their quarters and went to 
the river to see the sport. In the meantime a large body of 
warriors, who were concealed near the fort, silently entered 



58 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

it without opposition, and very few of the French escaped 
the carnage. They afterwards built another fort on the 
same ground, and called it Massac. 

Fort Chartres was built in 1720, and much repaired in ^750. 
It is situated in the neighborhood of Prairie du Rocher, and 
was orginally about one mile and a half from the Mississippi. 
Its figure was quadrilateral, with four bastions, the whole 
of which was composed of limestone well cemented. Each 
side measured about 340 feet. The ^'-nlls were fifteen feet 
high and about three feet thick, 'lliere was a spacious 
square of barracks with stone w^alls and a capacious maga- 
zine and two deep wells. Each port or loop-hole was formed 
by four solid cliffs or blocks of free stone, worked smooth 
and into proper shapes. All the cornices and casements 
about the gates and buildings were of the same material and 
appeared to great advantage. It was originally intended as 
a place of refuge for the inhabitants of the adjacent country 
in time of war. Some years after it was built the Mississippi 
broke over its banks and formed a channel so near the fort, 
that one side of it and two of its bastions were thrown down. 
This circumstance induced its abandonment in 1772, and 
since that period the inhabitants have taken away great 
quantities of materials from it to adorn their own buildinr^r, 
and it became a splendid ruin. 

It was on the 10th of October, 1765, that the ensign of 
France was replaced on the ramparts of Fort Chartres by 
the flag of Great Britain. For nearly ninety years Illinois 
had been in the actual occupation of the French, their settle- 
ments on the far-off waters of the Kaskaskia, Illinois* and 
Wabash slumbering quietly in colonial dependence, and 
although for more than one hundred years she had been con- 
structively a part of Florida, no Spaniard had set foot upon 
her soil or rested his eye upon her beautiful prairies. But 
the Anglo-Saxon had gsCined at last a permanent foot-hold 
on the banks of the great river, and a new life, instinct with 
energy and progress, was about to be infused into the 
country. 

M. Neyon de Villiers, long the commandant of Fort 
Chartres, kept from the French and Indians ,so long as he 
could a knowledge of the cession of the country to Great 
Britain, and finally, rather than dwell under the detested 
flag of the conqueror, he abandoned Illinois in the summer 



PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST. 59 

of 1?(U, and went to New Orleans^ followed by many of the 
inhabitants. 

The command of the fort and country then devolved upon 
M. St. Ange de Bellerive, a veteran Canadian French officer 
of rare tact and large experience, who forty years before 
had escorted Charlevoix through the country, who men- 
tions him with commendation. His position required skill 
and address to save his feeble colony from a renewed war 
with the English and from a general massacre by the in- 
censed hordes of savages under Pontiac, by whom he was 
surrounded. He had been advised by the home government 
of the cession to the British and ordered to surrender the 
country upon their arrival to claim it. 

After the evacuation of Fort Chartres, he also retired from 
the country, conducting his small garrison of twenty-one 
soldiers to the infant settlement of St. Louis, Vx^here in the 
absence of any Spanish rule as yet, he continued to exercise 
the functions of his office with great satisfaction to the 
people until November, 1770, when his authority was super- 
seded by Piernas, commandant under the Spanish govern- 
ment. 

The civil jurisdiction of Spain west of the Mississippi con- 
ferred by the secret treaty of November 3, 17G2, was not en- 
forced in Upper Louisiana until 1769. 

The exodus of the old Canadian French, induced by the 
causes already stated for the migration from Kaskaskia, was 
large just before and during the British occupation. Un- 
willing to dwell under the flag of their hereditary enemy, 
many, including some of the wealthiest families, removed 
with their slaves and other personal effects mostly to LTpper 
Louisiana, just across the Mississippi, and settled in the 
small hamlet of St. Genevieve. Others joined and aided 
Leclede in founding St. Louis, the site of which had then 
but just been selected as a depot for the fur company of 
Louisiana. 

The number of inhabitants of foreign lineage at this time 
in the Illinois settlements was estimated as follows: White 
men able to bear arms, 700; white women, 500; their children, 
850; blacks of both sexes, 900; total, 2,950. Ey the hegira 
one-third of the whites and nearly all the blacks migrated, 
leaving probably less than 1,500 souls at the commencement 
of the British occupation, and the population was not in- 
creased during the possession by the British. Few English 



60 HISTOEY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

or Americans, other than British troops, traders, officers and 
favored land speculators, were seen there during this time, 
nor until the conquest by Clark in 1778. 

The first British commandant was Capt. Stirling of the 
42nd Royal Highlanders. He was the bearer of a procla- 
mation made by Gen. Gage, commander of all the British 
forces in North America, which bore date in New York, 
December 30, 1764, and was published by Capt. Stirling on 
his arrival in Illinois. 

By this proclamation it was delared that: 

"His Majesty grants to the inhabitants of the Illinois the liberty of the Catholic religion, 
and that they may exercise the worship of their religion according to the rites of the 
Eoman Church in the same manner as in Canada." 

" That the French inhabitants or others who have been subjects of the Most Christian 
King (of France) may retire in full safety and freedom, and they may sell their estate, pro- 
vided it be to subjects of His Majesty, and transport their effects as well as persons upon 
their emigration. 

" That those who choose to retain their lands and become subjects of His Majesty, shall 
enjoy the same rights and privileges, the same security for their persons and effects and 
liberty of trade as the old subjects of the king. That they are commanded to take the 
oath of fidelity and obedience to His Majesty." 

It recommended to the inhabitants ''to conduct them- 
selves like good and faithful subjects, and act in concert 
with His Majesty's officers."' 

Capt. Stirling died some three months after his arrival, 
leaving the office of commandant vacant. 

Under these circumstances their former beloved com- 
mandant, M. St. Ange returned to Fort Chartres and dis- 
charged the duties of the office until a successor to Capt. 
Stirling should be sent out. 

Major Frazer was next sent from Fort Pitt. He exercised 
a brief but arbitrary power over the settlements, when he 
was relieved by a Col. Reid, who proved for the colonists a 
bad exchange. For eighteen months he enacted the petty 
tyrant by a series of military oppressions over tliese feeble 
settlements. 

Col. Reid was at last, however, removed and succeeded 
by Lieut. Col. Wilkins, who arrived September 5, 1768. 

On the 21st of November, 1768, Col. "Wilkins issued his 
proclamation for a civil administration of the laws of the 
country. 

For this purpose, he appointed seven magistrates or 
judges from among the people as a civil tribunal, to expound 
the principles of the common law of England. A term of 



PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTtlWEST. Gl 

this court was held December 6, 17G8, at Fort Chartres, 
which was the first common law jurisdiction ever exercised 
in what, within twenty years, became the Northwestern 
Territory of the United States. The court was a nonde- 
script affair. It was a court of first and last resort — no 
appeal lay from it. It was the highest as well as the 
lowest — the only court in the country. The trial by jury, 
the French mind was unable to appreciate. They thought 
it very wonderful that the English should refer the deter- 
mination of nice questions relating to the right of property 
to a tribunal consisting of tailors, shoemakers or other 
artisans and trades people, rather than to judges learned 
in the law. The attempt was a failure. 

In 1774, the English parliament restored to the people 
their ancient laws in civil cases, without the trial by jury; 
guaranteed the free exercise of their religion and rehabili- 
tated the Roman Catholic clergy with the privileges stipu- 
lated in the articles of capitulation of Montreal in 17G0. 
The act was known as the " Quebec Bill." The colonies 
on the Atlantic seaboard took great umbrage at one por- 
tion of this law, which extended the province of Quebec to 
the Mississippi, including all the French inhabitants at De- 
troit, Mackinaw, on the Wabash and in the Illinois coun- 
try, and its enactment was one of the grievances specified 
in the declaration of independence. 

The most noticeable feature of Col. Wilkin's adminis- 
tration, was the wonderful liberality with which he j^ar- 
celed out the domain over which he ruled, in large tracts to 
his favorites in Illinois, Philadelphia and elsewhere, with 
no other consideration than requiring them to reconvey an 
interest to himself. 

Settlers now began rapidly to survey the country between 
the Alleghanies and the Mississippi and prepare for occupa- 
tion. During the year 1770 a number of persons from Vir- 
ginia and other British provinces explored and marked out 
many of the most valuable lands on the Monongahela and 
along the banks of the Ohio. Pittsburgh was at this time a 
trading post, about which was clustered a village of some 
twenty houses, inhabited by Indian traders. The trade from 
the posts was quite good, and from those in Illinois large 
quantities of pork and flour found their way to the New 
Orleans market. 

In 1774 Gov. Dunmore, of Virginia, began to encourage 



62 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

emigration to the western lands. He appointed magistrates 
at Fort Pitt, claiming that it was within the jurisdiction of 
that commonwealth. 

The French settlers in the west were predisposed to favor 
the British government in the war with the colonies, but the 
early alliance between France and the United States soon 
brought them to the support of the colonial cause. 

At the period of the surrender of the posts to the English 
there were about fifty cottages on the strait of Detroit with 
•orchards by their side. They were constructed of logs with 
roof of bark, or thatched with straw. Wheat was sown in 
rows, potatoes were first introduced by the English, corn 
was cultivated, while peltries were the chief circulating 
medium. The first horses used in Detroit were brought from 
Fort Du Quesne, and these were taken from the English by 
the Indians at Braddock's defeat. 

The succession of authority over the Northwest did not 
bring with it to the English the friendship of the Algonquin 
tribes in that quarter. The new masters w^ere regarded as 
intruders by the Indians, and the long-cherished affection 
which many of the tribes had for the French produced an 
'opposite feeling in them toward the new people, the enemies 
of their great French father. This feeling was early exhib- 
ited by PoNTiAC, and was fully developed in the disastrous 
t?vents which quickly followed the occupation of the posts 
by the English, known as the Pontiac war. 

PoNTiAC had conceived the great design of driving the 
English at once and effectually from the country by a 
destruction of their forts and strongholds. His plan was to 
unite the various tribes in one grand confederacy, and by a 
simultaneous attack on all the English posts to massacre the 
garrisons, take possession of these posts, drive out the 
British from the land, and secure the return of the French, 

Pontiac called a grand council of warriors of the western 
tribes, the Miamis, Ottawas, Chippewas, Wyandottes, Pot 
^awatamies, Mississagas, Shawanese, Outagamies, and the 
Winnebagoes. These tribes were willing to join the confed 
eracy, and when hostilities were commenced, every energ 
was bent to their effectual prosecution, in that stern mo( 1 
of savage warfare, which knows no mercy. 

Before any suspicion had been excited on the part of the 
English, the sanguinary war burst upon them like lightuin- 
from the overcharged thunder-cloud. In the month of Zli: y . 



PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST. G3 

1763, the attack of the confederated Indians was made 
mostly at the same time on all the British posts, eight of 
which were captured, viz.: Ouiatenon, Michillimg.ck:inac, St. 
Josephs, Miami, Sandusky, Presq' isle, Le Beuf, and Ve- 
nango, and at Presq' isle, St. Josephs and Mackinac, and 
there was a general slaughter of the garrisons. 

The garrison of Michillimackinac at this time consisted of 
ninety privates, two subalterns and the commandant, and 
the English merchants at the fort were four in number. 
Few entertained anxiety concerning the Indians, who had 
no weapons but small arms. Meanwhile the Indians were 
daily assembling in unusual numbers, but with every ap- 
pearance of friendship, frequenting the fort, and disposing 
of their peltries in such a manner that no fears of danger 
existed. 

The 4th of June was the king's birthday. In order to do 
honor to the day, and add to the festivities, it was proposed 
that the game of baggiteway, an Indian ball play, generally 
called by the French lejeu de la crosse, should be played 
between the Chippewas and Sacs for a high wager. The 
game is played with a bat and ball; two posts are planted 
in the ground about a mile apart, and each party having its 
post, the object is to propel the ball, which is placed in the 
center, toward the post of the adversary. To view this 
game, Major Etherington, the commandant, who had 
wagered on the side of the Chippewas, was not only present 
himself, but all the garrison who could be induced, were by 
some pretext drawn outside the pickets, in order to weaken 
the defenses of the forts The stratagem of the Indians was 
soon developed. 

The design was to throw the ball over the pickets, which 
was accomplished, and as in the heat of the game such an 
event was not liable to excite any extraordinary alarm, so 
the immediate and promiscuous rushing of the Indians into 
the fort in pursuit of the ball was for a moment regarded as 
a mere natural consequence. But in an instant the war-yell 
was heard within the pickets, and the Indians were seen fu- 
riously cutting down and scalping every Englishman whom 
they could discover. No less than seventy soldiers, together 
with Lieutenant Jewette, had been killed, and but twenty 
Englishmen, including soldiers, were still alive. Capt. Exn 
ERiNGTON and Lieut. Leslie escaped death by the bold intei- 



64 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

vention of Charles De Langlade, but were held as prisoners 
by their savage captors. 

The fort at Green Bay had received an English garrison 
in 17G1, which consisted of seventeen men, under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Gorrell; but although it escaped the 
fate of Michillimackinac, it was soon abandoned, by orders 
of Major Etherington, and the garrison, with Lieutenant 
Gorrell were afterwards escorted by a band of friendly 
Indians to L'Arbre Croche, where they met with Major 
Etherington and the remnant of his command, who were 
still detained as prisoners. On the 18th of July, they were 
liberated, and the whole party reached Montreal by way of 
the Ottawa river, about the middle of August. Except the 
garrison of Detroit, not a British soldier now remained in 
the region of the lakes. 

Detroit was then deemed the most important of the north- 
western posts. PoNTiAC determined to undertake its cap- 
ture in person. His forces consisted of eight hundred and 
twenty warriors. The town was garrisoned by one hundred 
and twenty-two men and eight officers, of whom Major 
Gladwyn was commandant. Pontiac having failed to gain 
possession of the post by stratagem, in consequence of the 
treachery of a squaw who informed the commandant of his 
plans, invested the post, and attempted to secure its capitu- 
lation by siege. All the means which the savage mind 
could suggest were employed by Pontiac to demolish the 
settlement of Detroit. Blazing arrows were shot; a breach 
was made in the pickets; floating fire rafts were constructed 
and sent against the vessels lying in the river, supplies were 
cut off, and the English were reduced to great distress from 
the diminution of their rations. 

The siege of Detroit continued for about a year. In the 
month of June, 17G4, General Bradstreet arrived with a 
force of three thousand men for the purpose of compelling 
a peace. The tribes of Pontiac laid down their arms, and, 
with the exception of the Delawares and Shawanese, con- 
cluded a treaty of peace. Pontiac, however, took no part 
in the negotiation, and soon after retired to the Illinois, 
where he was killed in 1767, by a Peoria Indian. 

The restoration of peace between the new masters of the 
country and the Indian tribes, and the natural desire of the 
English to reap the advantages of their new possessions, 
were calculated to create expectations of a gradual if not 



PROGRESS OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST. Go 

speed}^ occupation and settlement of the countiy between 
the great lakes and the Mississippi, but for a series of years, 
extending to a period later than the termination of the 
Revolutionary war, but little account of such improvements 
is to be found. 

When Capt. Carver visited Green Bay in 17GC, there had 
been at that place no garrison since the fort was abandoned 
by Lieut. Gorrell, three years before. A few families 
lived in the fort and opposite to it on the east side of Fox 
river. There were a few French settlers who cultivated the 
land and appeared to live comfortably. 

At the time Capt. Stirling, coming by the way of the 
Ohio, established his headquarters at Fort Chartres, as 
previously stated, in October, 1765, as commandant of the 
Illinois country under the orders of Gen. Gage, commander- 
in-chief of his Majesty's forces in America, the French 
population of the whole country, from the Mississippi east- 
ward to the Wabash, was probably not less than five 
thousand persons, including about five hundred negro 
slaves. Fort Chartres, subsequently^ called "Fort Gage," 
was on the east bank of the Kaskaskia River, opposite the 
town of Kaskaskia. 

The relations between the French settlers in the Illinois 
country and the neighboring Indian tribes were of the most 
friendly character. Not so the relations between the Indians 
and the Americans. At the commencement of the war of the 
Revolution, and during its continuance, the savages of the 
Northwest had been associated as allies of Great Britain, 
and employed by the British commanders to lay waste the 
whole frontier country. 

Virginia claimed that the Illinois country, and of course 
all the posts within it, including Detroit, were embraced by 
her three royal charters. Patrick Henry was governor of 
Virginia, and a secret expedition was set on foot for the 
reduction of these posts under the authority of the governor 
and executive council, which was prompted and guided by 
the genius and enterprise of Col. George Rogers Clark. 

Col. Clark assembled his force, consisting of six incom- 
plete companies of fifty men each, at the Falls of the Ohio, 
about the middle of June, 1778. On the :24th they descended 
the river in keel- boats as far as Fort Massac. From Fort 
Massac they crossed the country by land, and on the 4th of 
July reached a point within two miles of Kaskaskia. In 
5 



66 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the dead of night, two divisions crossed the river, and were 
instantly in possession of the town, while Col. Clark w ith 
the remainder of his force with equal success captured the 
fort, which was unconditionally surrendered to Rocheb- 

LAVE. 

The French inhabitants declared for the American cause, 
and the Kaskaskians assisted in securing the submission of 
their neigbors at Kahokia, which was successf idly obtained 
on the Gth of July, 

With the exception of Detroit, the post at Vincennes was 
the most important. M. Gibault, the priest of Kaskaskia, 
with the ready sanction of Col. Clakk, attempted by per- 
suasion alone to induce the inhabitants to throw off their 
forced connection with England, On the 1st of August he 
returned with the intelligence that they had taken the oath 
of allegiance to Virginia, Col. Clark established courts 
and placed garrisons at Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes. 
Treaties of amity were also entered into by Col. Clark in 
the vicinity of all the Northwestern British posts. 

In December, 1778, the British commander of Detroit, 
Lieut.-Gov. Henry Hamilton, having collected all the force 
in his power, arrived at Vincennes, and summoned the gar- 
rison to surrender. The only occupants of the fort were 
Capt. Helm, one private and three citizens. Capt. Helm, 
making a show of resistance, was offered all the usual 
honors of war. Gov. Hamilton took up his winter quarters 
in the town and fort, with seventy-nine men. 

In February, 1779, Col. Clark, with one hundred and 
thirty men and forty pack-horseman, marched to Vincennes, 
where he arrived on the 21st, and immediately invested the 
fort and demanded its surrender. After a siege of three 
days, in which only one American was wounded, and seven 
British soldiers were severely wounded, if not killed, on the 
24th of February, Col. Hamilton capitulated and surren- 
dered the garrison as prisoners of war. He and seven other 
prisoners were sent to Virginia, 

A few days after, Capt. Helm, by order of Col. Clark, at 
the head of sixty men, captured a convoy of merchandise 
and army supplies, amounting to ten thousand pounds in 
value, which was advancing by way of the Wabash from 
Detroit, under an escort of forty men. 

In the result of the enterprise and success of Col. Clark, 
Virginia obtained possession of the territory claimed by her 



UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION. 67 

— the great Northwest — at this day, comprising the states 
of Ohio, Indiana, Ilhnois, Michigan, Wisconsin and a large 
part of Minnesota, Hencefoi-th the Northwest remained in 
a comparative degree of quiet during the progress of the 
Revolutionary war, except the predatory excursions of the 
Indians from this region, on the frontiers of the old states. 
It exhibits few events worthy of attention, in regard to 
organized government, production or commerce, and a total 
barrenness, in relation to settlement and growth of popula- 
tion. 



CHAPTER VI. 

UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION. 

The " Ordinance for the government of the territory of 
the United States, northwest of the river Ohio," adopted by 
the Continental Congress, July 13, 1787, may be regarded as 
the fundamental law which led the way to the wonderful 
growth and prosperity of the states since formed from the 
" Northwest Territory." 

" Slavery or involuntary servitude," notwithstanding the 
Gth article of this ordinance, continued to exist at Green 
Bay. During the constant wars of the Indians, the Wis- 
consin tribes made captives of the Pawnees and other 
distant tribes who were consigned to servitude. Augustin 
Grignon says in his " Recollections," that he personally knew 
fourteen of these slaves, and that his grandfather, Charles 
De Langlade, had two Indian slaves. It also appears 
quite certain that negroes were held as slaves at Green Bay, 
one of whom, Mr. Grignon says, was a boy, purchased by 
Baptist Brunett from a St. Louis Indian trader, and that 
the negro boy was taken away from Brunett as late as 
1807, by Mr. Campbell, the Indian agent at Prairie du 
Chien, in consequence of the cruel treatment inflicted upon 
him. 

The treaty of peace of 1783, Avas not accompanied by the 
immediate surrender of the British posts to the American 
authorities. More than ten years of diplomatic controversy 
intervened before a great part of the disputes were in a 
measure settled by Jay's treaty of 1794, and it was not until 



G8 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

two years later, that the posts in the Northwest were evacu- 
ated by the British and deHvered up to the Americans under 
the stipulations of that treaty. Some of the most cruel and 
bloody wars with the Indians, which have ever been known 
in the annals of American history, occurred during the five 
years immediately preceding the treaty of Greenville, of 
1795. In many of these wars, the American forces were 
signally unsuccessful. They were, however, mostly in that 
part of the Northwestern Territory, which was so distant 
from the limits of the present state of Wisconsin, that they 
are no farther connected with its history, than that history 
is connected with whatever relates to the Northwestern 
Territory. 

The most signal of these reverses, was the defeat of Gen. 
Haemar on the Maumee, in October, 1790, and the route of 
Gen. St. Clair, on the head-waters of the Wabash, in 
November, 179L In these and other engagements, the 
Indians were undoubtedly aided and abetted by the British. 

The subsequent campaigns were entrusted to Major-Gen. 
Anthony Wayne, and were attended with signal success. 
In August, 1794, on the Maumee, above Fort Defiance, was 
fought one of the most successful and decisive battles ever 
fought with western Indians, and tended more than any 
other to humble the power and spirit of the hostile tribes. 
The name of Gen. Wayne alone was a greater terror to 
them than any army, for they looked upon him as a chief 
who never slept and whom no art could surprise. The 
campaign of 1794 put a close to Indian hostilities in the 
Northwest, and the tribes soon began t.o evince a disposition 
to enter into a permanent treaty of peace and friendship, 
notwithstanding the opposition urged by the British agents. 
Preliminary articles were signed at Fort Wayne, Januar.y 
24th, 1795, by which it was agreed that a definitive treaty 
should be made the next summer at Greenville. Accord- 
ingly there had assembled at the latter place, eleven hun- 
dred and thirty chiefs and warriors of the several nations 
and tribes of the W3^andots, Delawares, Shawanese, Otta- 
was, Chippewas, Pottawatamies, Miamis, Weas, Eel Rivers, 
Kickapoos, Piankeshaws and Kaskaskias. The " great and 
abiding peace document" was finally agreed upon and 
signed on the 3d of August, 1795, by eighty- four chiefs, 
representing these nations and tribes, and by Gen. Anthony 
Wayne, sole commissioner on the part of the United States. 



UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION. G9 

By the treaty of 1783, Great Britain relinquished to the 
United States 'all the territory on the east side of the Mis- 
sissippi, from its sources to the 31st parallel of north lati- 
tude, which was the boundary of Florida on the north. The 
United States claimed the free navigation of the river to its 
mouth, by virtue of the treaty, as well as by a natural right 
independent of treaty, to follow the current of their rivers to 
the sea, as established by the laws of nations. 

Great Britain had ceded to Spain all the Floridas, and 
possessing all the territory on the west side of the river and 
Florida on the east, the river for the last three hundred 
miles flowed wholly within the dominions of Spain, His 
Catholic Majesty therefore denied the right of the United 
States to the free navigation of the river, and claimed for 
Spain the exclusive right to the use of the river below the 
southern limit of the United States. In the exercise of the 
rights claimed by Spain, heavy duties were exacted of every 
boat descending the river, which were as arbitrary as they 
were unjust. 

By the treaty of Madrid, which was signed October 20, 
1795, boundaries were defined between the territories of the 
United States and Spain, The treaty provided that the 
middle of the Mississippi should be the western boundary of 
the United States, from its source to the intersection of the 
31st parallel of north latitude, and that the whole w^idth of 
said river from its source to the sea should be free to the 
people of the United States. 

By treaty signed at Madrid, March 21, 1801, Spain granted 
Louisiana to France. 

In January, 1803, Egbert R. Livingston and James 
Monroe were appointed ministers to the court of France, 
and by the last of April in that year concluded a Treaty, 
which was ratified in the following October, wdiich resulted 
in the purchase, for sixty million francs, in six per cent, 
bonds, of the whole of the province of Louisiana. Thus the 
United States became possessed of the whole of the great 
valley of the Mississippi, while Spain retained Mexico on the 
west and southwest, and the Floridas on the southeast. The 
Indian title to the lands in this vast region alone remained 
to be extinguished. 

On the 7th of May, 1800, the Northwest Territory was 
divided and the new territory of Indiana established, em- 
bracing the present states of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 



70 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Wisconsin and Minnesota, east of the Mississippi, while on 
the west the boundary was undefined, and the new Indiana 
territory embraced "all that part of the territory of the 
United States which lies to the westward of a line beginning 
at the Ohio, opposite to the mouth of the Kentucky river, 
and thence north until it shall intersect the territorial line 
between the United States and Canada." 

Gen. William Henry Harrison was appointed, in 1801, 
governor of the newly organized territory. He made 
several treaties on the part of the United States with differ- 
ent Indian tribes, by which their possessory title to extensive 
tracts of territory was extinguished. But the most im- 
portant of all the treaties made by him was that with Sacs 
and Foxes at St. Louis, on the dd of November, 1804. This 
treaty was made and signed by only five individuals, on the 
part of the Indians, and its validity was denied by one band 
of the Sacs, of which Black Hawk was the chief, and the 
cession of land made by it, and its occupancy by the whites, 
became twenty-eight years afterward the alleged cause of 
the Black Hawk war, which in its results materially aided 
in the settlement of Wisconsin. 

The boundaries of the land to which the Indian title was 
extinguished by this treaty, if valid, are thus described: 

" Beginning at a point on the Missouri River, opposite the mouth of Gasconade River; 
thence in a direct course so as to strike the river Jeffreon (now called Salt River) at the dis- 
tance of thirty miles from its mouth, and down the said Jeffreon to the Mississippi; 
thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin River, and up the same to a point 
which shall be thirtj'-six miles in a direct line from the mouth of the said river (this point 
is about three miles west of Muscoda, in Grant county); thence by a direct line to the 
point where the Fox River (a branch of the Illinois) leaves the small lake called Sakaegan; 
thence down the Fox River to the Illinois river, and down the same to the Mississippi." 

The "small lake called Sakaegan" is supposed to be 
Mukwanago lake, a little northeast of the village of Muk- 
wanago in Waukesha county, of which Hon. Andrew E. 
Elmore was an early inhabitant, and which gave to him 
the title of " Sage of Mukwanago." There are, however, 
different opinions as to which of the lakes discharging their 
waters into Fox River was called " Sakaegan." The direct 
line from the Wisconsin river to the Fox river, where it 
leaves the Mukwanago lake, forming the northern boundary 
of this cession, passes about three miles south of Madison, 
through the Second lake (Waubesa) and crosses Eock river 
about two miles above Fort Atkinson. These boundaries 



UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION. 71 

embrace more than fifty million acres, the purchase price of 
which was 

" Gooels in hand to the amount of two thousand, two hundred and fifty -four dollars and 
fifty cents and a yearly annuity of one thoTisand dollars, to be paid in goods valued at first 
cost." 

Two separate treaties were made at Portage des Sioux, 
on the 12th day of September, 1815, by Wm. Clark, Ninian 
Edwards and Augusts Chouteau, commissioners on the 
part of the United States. One was with the '"' chiefs and 
warriors of that portion of the Sac nation of Indians 
residing on the Missouri river," in which tliey " assent '"' to 
the treaty between the United States and the Sacs and 
Foxes, concluded at St. Louis, November ?>, 1804, and they 
" promise to do all in their power to re-establish and enforce 
the same." The other was with the " king, chiefs and war- 
riors of the Fox tribe or nation" in which they "assent to, 
recognize, re-establish and confirm" the treaty of 1804 and 
"promise to fulfill all the stipulations contained in the said 
treaty, in favor of the said Fox tribe or nation." Neither of 
these treaties was signed by Black Hawk. 

On the 13th of May, 181G, a treaty w^as made at St. Louis, 
by the same commissioners and the " chiefs and warriors of 
the Sacs of Rock river and the adjacent country," which 
recites that the Indians are " anxious to return to the habits 
of peace and friendship." * * * « jy^ hereby uncon- 
ditionally assent to, recognize, re-establish and confirm " 
the treaty of 1804. This treaty was signed by twenty-two 
of the " chiefs and warriors," among whom was Muck-e- 
ta-ma-che-ka-ka. Black Sparrow Hawk. Although Black 
Hawk " touched the quill " to this treaty, he afterward pre- 
tended that he was ignorant of what he was doing, and 
denied its obligatory force upon the Sacs of Rock river, of 
which he was the head chief. 

Soon after the treaty of 1804, Fort Madison was erected 
by the United States troops, a short distance above the 
mouth of the Des Moines river. 

On the 9th of August, 1805, Lieut. Zebulon Pike left St. 
Louis with a detatchment of soldiers under the orders of 
government, on an exploring expedition in boats toward the 
headwaters of the Mississippi. On the 23d of September 
he held a council at St. Peters with the chiefs of the Mis- 
sissippi bands, and obtained a grant of one hundred thou- 



73 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

sand acres for the purpose of military posts at St. Peters, the 
Falls of St. Anthony and the mouth of the St. Croix. 

Predatory excursions by the different Indian tribes were 
frequently made, resulting in the murder of many of the 
inhabitants in the Indiana Territory, which were owing 
greatly to the baneful influence of Tecumthe and his 
brother, the Shawanese Prophet, who were active in their 
efforts to effect a union of all the tribes. But the first blood 
spilled under public authority since the pacification of 
Greenville in August, 1795, was at the memorable battle 
of Tippecanoe, of which Gen. Harrison was pre-eminently 
the hero, and in which Tecumthe fell. 

The question " Who killed Tecumpseh?" has been much 
discussed, but the weight of authorit}^, especially the testi- 
mony of Gov. Cass, leaves but little doubt that he was killed 
by the brave Col. Richard M. Johnson. This battle was 
fought on the 7th of November, 1811, near the present city 
of La Fayette, Indiana. The Americans had not more than 
seven hundred efficient men, while the Indian force was at 
least six hundred, and the estimate has been made at from 
eight hundred to one thousand warriors. The result was a 
complete route of the savage enemy, who fled in every direc- 
tion and were pursued by the horsemen into the wood, as 
far as they could proceed. According to the official returns, 
the loss of the Americans was thirty-seven killed on the 
field, among whom were Col. Daviess, of Kentucky, and 
Cols. Owen and White, of Indiana, twenty-five mortall}^ 
wounded and one hundred and twenty-six wounded. Of the 
Indians, forty were left dead on the field, and how many 
others were killed or wounded, mortally or otherwise, is un- 
known. 

This sanguinary battle was the beginning of the war 
declared against Great Britain the next year, and the Indian 
tribes inhabiting the country south and west of the great 
lakes, immediately flew to arms and sought the aid of their 
allies, the English in Canada, of which they had previously 
received assurances, and they now began to threaten all the 
American border population and the posts in Ohio, Indiana 
and Michigan territory, as well as the northwestern confines 
of Pennsylvania and New York. 

Previous to the war of 1812, it was the policy of the British 
government to keep alive the bitter feelings of the Indians 
against the Americans, which it did by means of the Indian 



UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION. 73 

traders without openly violating its peaceful relations to our 
government. 

One of these traders, whose principal trading post was at 
Prairie du Chien, was a talented Englishman named Col. 
Robert Dickson. Soon after the congressional declaration 
of war in 1813, Col. Dickson arrived at Green Bay with a 
party of about one hundred Sioux. To this party were 
joined the Menomonee chief Tomah and about one hundred 
of his tribe, and also a larger band of Winnebagoes. The 
whole body moved forward to Mackinaw, and took part in 
its capture. 

Lieut. Hanks was in command of the American forces at 
Mackinaw, consisting of only fifty-seven effective men. He 
had no knowledge that war existed until he was attacked 
on the 17th of July by a force of British, Canadians and 
Indians, numbering in all more than one thousand, and was 
compelled to surrender his men as prisoners of war, who 
were discharged on parole. The Sioux and Winnebagoes 
first returned, and Tomah with his Menomonees in the 
autumn. 

Early in the spring of 1813 the Menomonee chief Soultgny 
and The White Elk, with about fifty warriors^ were engaged 
in the hard fighting at Fort Meigs, and soon after returned 
to Green Bay. 

Later in the season. Col. Dickson assembled a force of 
Indian warriors, among whom were Tomah and about 
fifty of his band; Black Hawk, with a band of two hun- 
dred Sac warriors, and other Indians consisting of Pot- 
tawatamies, Kickapoos, Ottawas and Winnebagoes, the 
whole force numbering about five hundred. Col. Dickson, 
with his Indians, passing Chicago, v/hich had l)een evacu- 
ated, reached Fort Meigs, where little was to be done, and 
after some slight skirmishing, retired to Detroit. Some 
portion of Dickson's forces now returned to Green Bay, 
and he led the remainder to Sandusky and aided in the 
attack of the fort, which was so gallantly defended by 
Maj. George Croghan. Black Hawk and his followers 
then returned to Rock river, and nothing more is heard of 
Col. Dickson and his Indian force. 

The surrender of Detroit by Gen. Hull, was the crown- 
ing misfortune that befell the American cause in this 
quarter of the seat of war. Hull was afterwards tried 
by a court martial, found guilty of cowardice, and sen- 



74 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

tenced to be shot. He was, however, pardoned by the 
president, but deprived of all military command. 
♦ Gen. Hull had informed Capt. Heald, commander of 
the post of Fort Dearborn, Chicago, of the loss of Macki- 
naw, and directed him to retire with his garrison to Fort 
Wayne. On the 15th of August, Capt. Heald proceeded 
to obey these orders with fifty-four regulars and twelve 
militia, escorted by a guard of about thirty Miamis, under 
the command of Capt. Wells, who had been sent from Fort 
Wayne for that purpose. The evacuating party had pro- 
ceeded on their way along the lake shore a little more than 
a mile, when they were attacked by the Pottawatamies, 
numbering four or five hundred, under Black Bird. Capt. 
Wells and other officers, twenty-six regulars, all the 
militia, with two women and twelve children, were all 
killed. Capt. Heald and his wife were severely wounded. 
To-PEN-E-BEE, the Grand Sachem of the Pottawatamies, was 
prevailed upon by John B. Chadanau and Joseph Ber- 
TRAND to spare their lives, and they with the few other sur- 
vivors, were taken back as prisoners to Fort Dearborn, which 
the Indians burned the next day. During the continuance of 
the war with Great Britain, Wisconsin presented but a small 
theatre for action; there was, however, a conflict for the pos- 
session of our frontier posts. 

The work of repairing the old fort at Prairie du Chien, and 
its recapture by the British under Col. McKay, will be de- 
scribed in a chapter devoted to Prairie du Chien. 

While Col. McKay was engaged in capturing the Fort 
at Prairie du Chien, Major Campbell had ascended the 
river from St. Louis, with a squadron of boats and a 
detachment of United States troops, for the purpose of 
re-enforcing the garrison at that place. When he arrived 
at Rock Island, he learned that the fort had been captured, 
and the expedition returned down the river, not, however, 
until after an attack by the Indians, in which one of the 
boats was captured, several men were killed, and Major 
Campbell and several others were wounded. 

Soon after this event the British commander at Prairie du 
Chien, then called Fort McKay, descended the river with a 
detachment of soldiers and two field-pieces. The guns were 
placed in position at Rock Island to prevent the passage of 
the river by any force which might attempt it. 

In 181G, the war with Great Britain having terminated in 



UNDER AMERICAN JURISDICTION. ' 75 

the treaty of peace, the constraction of Fort Armstrong was 
commenced by United States troops at Rock Island, and a 
few settlers soon followed, who commenced making im- 
provements, although the Indians had not yet removed. 

In the period between 1815 and 1820, Capt. John Shaw 
made eight trips in a trading boat from St. Louis to Prairie 
du Chien, and visited the lead mines where the city of 
Galena now is, and where the Indians smelted the lead in 
rude furnaces of their own construction, and at one time 
Mr. Shaw carried away seventy tons, which they had pro- 
duced from the ores obtained by themselves in their rude 
and primitive modes. Capt. Shaw afterwards lived in 
Green Lake county, in this state, where he died August 31, 
1871, in his 89th year. He was never married. 

The rapids in the Mississippi river immediately above the 
mouth of Rock river and of the Des Moines river, known as 
the Rock river rapids and the Des Moines rapids, were a 
serious obstruction to the navigation of the great river, and 
until 1821 it was believed that a steamboat could not ascend 
them. In the spring of that year, the water in the river 
being high, David G. Bates, who had for several years been 
engaged in running keel boats on the upper Mississippi, 
brought over the rapids a boat called the Putnam, which was 
one of the smallest class of boats that run the Ohio river in 
low water, and was the first to make the through trip from 
St. Louis to Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling. In June 
following, boats of a larger class made the same trip, and 
since then the river has been navigated to St. Paul and Fort 
Snelling by steamboats, which have every year increased in 
size and convenience. 

The commanding importance of the pine lumbering inter- 
ests of Wisconsin is justly calculated to incite inquiry as 
to their early development and later progress. Lumber in 
large quantities is manufactured on all the streams that 
empty into Green Bay ; also on the Mississippi at and 
above the Falls of St. Anthony, and on the Wisconsin, 
Black, Chippewa, and St. Croix rivers and their tributaries. 
The construction of the first mills was in the vicinity of 
Green Bay. The next attempts were on Black river. In 
1819, Constant A. Andrews, with one Dixon, built a saw- 
mill at the falls of Black river, in which undertaking Col. 
John Shaw was in some way connected with them. Gov. 
McNair, of Missouri, who was sutler at Prairie du Chien, 



76 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

and Wilfred Owens, who had charge of the business, fur- 
nished the capital, and were interested in the enterprise. 

Authority to build the mill was obtained from the Sioux 
Indians ; but the Winnebagoes claimed that the site was 
within their domain. By the time the mill was in opera- 
tion, hundreds of Winnebagoes came there in a starving con- 
dition, and took from the adventurers all the food they had to 
eat, and all their blankets, and they were compelled to leave 
the mill, and the next year it was burned and abandoned. 

About the year 1822 a man by the name of Hardin Per- 
kins came to Prairie du Chien from Kentucky, for the 
purpose of building a saw-mill in the Indian country. He in- 
duced James H. Lockwood and Joseph Rolette to furnish 
the necessary capital and obtain the consent of the Indians 
and Indian agent. 

The consent of Wabashaw's band of Sioux, who claimed 
the Chippewa river country, and that of Maj. Taliaferro, 
then agent for the Sioux Indians, having been procured, 
Perkins proceeded to the Red Cedar, a branch of the Chip- 
pewa, also known as the Menomonee river, and near the 
mouth of a small stream running into the Menomonee, 
about fifteen miles above its junction with the Chippewa 
river, he erected a saw-mill. 

The surveys of the public lands, since made, show that 
the site of this mill was on the northwest quarter of section 
26, town 28, range 13 west, in Dunn county, and is identical 
with the site of the shingle mill of Knapp, Stout & Co., at 
the village of Menomonee, in Dunn county. 

The mill erected by Perkins was about 150 feet from the 
mouth of the small stream, which is now known as Wilson 
creek. The large water-power saw-mill of Knapp, Stout & 
Co. is on the main (Menomonee) river, about 100 feet below 
the mouth of Wilson creek, and about seventy-five or eighty 
yards from the site of the first mill, built by Perkins. 

When the Perkins mill was nearly completed — so near 
that he expected to commence sawing in a very few days — 
a sudden freshet came and swept away the dam, mill, and 
appendages, and the enterprise was abandoned. 

In May, 1830, Messrs. Lockwood and Rolette, by permis- 
sion of the Secretary of War and the consent of the 
Indians, under the superintendency of a man named Arm- 
strong, rebuilt the mill, with a slight change of the site, but 
with the dam rebuilt where the first one was. 



GREEN BAY — 1634 TO 1836. 77 



CHAPTER YII. 

GREEN BAY — 1634 TO 183G. 

Up to the time when the British took possession of 
the west there were within the present boundaries of Wis- 
consin few white inhabitants. 

The two settlements, at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, 
the one where the Fox river debouches into Green Bay, and 
the other near the junction of the Wisconsin river with the 
Mississippi, and being respectively the termini of the great 
natural highway between the lakes and the Father of 
Waters, were the earliest abodes of civilization within the 
limits of the state, the occupation of which became perma- 
nent. 

The earliest settlement was at Green Bay. Nicollet, 
with his voyageurs, was the first white man who trod its 
soil. He visited Green Bay as early as 1G34, ascended Fox 
river, and was at the Wisconsin river. 

As early as 1654, Lake Superior was visited by fur traders 
from Montreal, and at some time between that date and 
1659 they pressed forward to Green Bay, where furs were 
abundant. 

In 1660 Father Mesnard, who was lost in the forests of 
Lake Superior, had been charged by the bishop of Quebec 
to visit Green Bay, a mission which his sad fate prevented 
his fulfilling. 

In 1669, Father Allouez, having previously established a 
mission at Che-goi-me-gon, exchanged it with Father Mar- 
quette for a new mission which he established that year at 
or near Green Bay, probably at De Pere, and which subse- 
quently was called the mission of St. Francis Xavier. 

The precise date of the establishment of the first fortifica- 
tion at Green Bay — which was called St. Francis — is in- 
volved in some obscurity. The foundations of the fort at 
Mackinaw, on the peninsula, were laid by Marquette in 
1671, and other fortified posts about this period were estab- 
lished at Green Bay, Chicago, St. Josephs, Sault St, Mary, 
and Detroit. In 1680 Tonti commanded at Green Bay and 
had a small detachment of men under him. Soon after him 
came Lieut. Du Lhut, who had a small troop under his com- 



78 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

mand. It was a dependency of Mackinaw and was easily 
and speedily re-enforced from that post. 

On the IGth of May, 1673, Marquette and Joliet em- 
barked from the mission station at Green Bay, on their 
voyage up the Fox and down the Wisconsin, which resulted 
in the discovery of the Mississippi river; and returned to 
Green Bay by the route of the Illinois and Chicago rivers, 
before the end of September of the same year. The ensu- 
ing winter and following summer were spent by Marquette, 
in sickness, at the mission of St. Francis Xavier. 

In the autumn of 1680 Hennepin and Du Lhut reached 
the mission near Green Bay, where they spent the winter. 
It was during this winter that La Salle made a journey on 
foot from Fort Crevecoeur, on the Illinois river, to Green 
Bay. 

History is barren of any important events which occurred 
at Green Bay during the next thirty or forty years. The 
little garrison was probably there in 1716, at the time of De 
Louvigny's expedition against the Foxes, as it certainly 
was when De Lignery made his fruitless expedition in 
1728. In 1746 Capt. De Velie was in coinmand of the gar- 
rison, and was relieved that year by a new commandant. 
The garrison was withdrawn before the breaking out of the 
French war in 1754. 

The year 1745 was marked by the permanent settlement 
at Green Bay of Sieur Augustin de Langlade and his fam- 
ily. With the De Langlades came but a few settlers be- 
sides their own family. M. Souligny and his wife — the 
daughter of Augustin de Langlade — came with the family, 
and they were joined by Mons. Caron, who spent the remain- 
der of his days there. The whole number of which the 
colony consisted did not exceed eight persons. A black- 
smith named Lammiot came soon after. 

On the 12th October, 1761, Capt. BELFOUR,of the Eightieth 
Regiment of British infantry, arrived at Green Bay with 
Lieut. James Gorrell, one sergeant, one corporal, fifteen 
privates, a French interpreter, and two English traders 
whose names were McKay, from Albany, and Goddard, 
from Montreal. On the 14th, Capt. Belfour returned, leav- 
ing the post — afterward called Fort Edward Augustus— in 
charge of Lieut. Gorrell, who, with the seventeen men 
under his charge, busied themselves during the winter in 
repairing the fort, houses, etc. 



GREEN BAY — 1634 TO 1836. 79 

On the 2Gth of June, 17G3, Lieut. Gorrell, in pursuance 
of instructions from Capt. Etherington, who had been sur- 
prised by the Chippewas, at Mackinaw, abandoned his post 
at Green Bay and set off with all his garrison and the 
English traders, and a strong guard of friendly Indians, to 
join Capt. Etherington, which they did on the ;JOth of June, 
at an Ottawa village about thirty miles above Mackinaw. 

For forty years after the advent of the De Langlades the 
settlement at Green Bay made but little progress. In 1785 
there were but seven families, who, with their engages and 
others, did not exceed fifty-six souls. 

The heads of these seven families were Charles De Lang- 
lade, Pierre Grignon, Sr., Laqral, Baptist Brunet, 

Amable Roy, Joseph Roy and Marchand. All the 

trading was on the east side of the river and was all carried 
on by, Mr. Grignon and Marchand, and all the residences 
were on the same side except those of Brunet, Laqral and 
Joseph Roy who lived on the west side. 

The first settler who arrived after this date was Jacques 
(James) Porlier from Montreal, who came in 1791. Of him 
Gen. Ellis says " of all men of French origin at the Bay, 
when I arrived there (1822), Judge James Porlier stood 
foremost. " 

The next year, Charles Reaume arrived and took up his 
residence at the Bay. He was a very noted and most sing- 
ular character. He long held the office of Justice of the 
Peace, and it has been often said that no person could tell 
when his official duties first devolved upon him, nor from 
whence his authority was derived. But it appears reason- 
ably certain that his first commission was derived from the 
British authorities at Detroit before the surrender of that 
post in 1796, and that he subsequently received a similar 
commission from Genl. Harrison, Governor of Indiana 
Territory. Many amusing anecdotes are related of the 
manner in which he discharged his official duties, and it is 
well authenticated that the only process of the court was 
the judge's jack knife, which served at once as the token 
and authority by which all defendants were brought under 
his jurisdiction. In 1818 he was appointed one of the asso- 
ciate justices of the court by Gov. Cass, and the same year 
moved to Little Kaukalin, about ten miles above Green 
Bay, where he died in 1822. 
In the last years of the last century several other settlers 



80 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

began to arrive, almost invariably from Canada. Among 
them, John Lawe came in the summer of 1797. The total 
population in 1812 had increased to as many as two hundred 
and fifty, among whom the most prominent families not 
before mentioned were Duchano, Gravel, Chevalier, 
Chalifoux, Houlrich, Franks, Brisqun, Vieau, Car- 
drone, DousMAN, Carbounsau, Vaun, Houll, Jacobs, 
Garriepy, Bauprez, Ducharme, L ANGEVIN, Hyotte, Nor- 
man, Lavigne, Bonneterre, Boucher, Le Boeuf, The- 
beau, Dumond, Fortier, La Rock, and Jourdin, 

About 1794 the trading house of Ogilvie, Gillaspie & Co. 
was established, which three years later gave place to 
Jacob Frank's, of which John Lawe subsequently became 
proprietor. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that the Indian traders — 
at least those of any character — took what they pleased and 
kept no account with the natives. As to Judge Lawe's 
practice, the Indians, on taking his credit in the fall, high 
or low, each individual had an account, bona fide, opened 
with him on his books, as formal and precise in all respects 
as the sharpest white man in which he was debited his 
blanket, stroud, calico, powder, shot, thread, pipes, tobacco 
and flints as carefully as possible. On his appearance in 
the spring with his peltries, he was duly credited with pay- 
ment, not in the gross, or by the lump, but every skin was 
counted, separating the prime from the poor, and each kind 
from the other with exactness, with different prices, accord- 
ing to value, so that the Indian knew exactly how his 
account stood. 

Except the indispensable blacksmith there were no me- 
chanics at Green Bay before 181G, besides Augustin Thi- 
BEAU, a carpenter, who came in 1800. 

The earliest mill was erected by Jacob Franks about the 
year 1809. He first built a saw-mill on Devil river, two or 
three miles east of Depere, and then a grist-mill with one 
run of stones. 

John Bowyer of Virginia, was in 1^15, sent as Govern- 
ment Indian Agent and Matthew Irwin of Pennsylvania, 
as factor, to reside at Green Bay. 

In 1816 the government caused a saw-mill to be erected at 
the Little Kau-kau-lin. 

The various kinds of domestic animals were in use from 



GREEN BAY — 1634 TO 1836. 81 

soon after the settlement by the Langlades, and garden 
vegetables and cereals were also produced in abundance. 

Fort Howard was established in ISIG, the quarters of the 
officers and soldiers having been prepared by Gen. (then 
Major) Charles Gratiot of the engineer corps. On the 
16th of July Col. John Miller in command of a detach- 
ment of troops, which it required three schooners to trans- 
port, having Major Gratiot in company, landed with his 
troops on the west side of Fox River at its junction with 
Green Bay, to the great wonder and surprise of the inhabit- 
ants. The troops pitched their tents near where the fort 
was subsequently erected, and it was about two months be- 
fore they got houses and barracks ready for occupation. 
Col. Miller returned during that year to Detroit, leaving 
the post and troops in command of Col. Chambers. 

In 1820, the troops under command of Col. Joseph L. 
Smith were removed two and a half miles up the river, to 
an eminence on the right bank, which he named Camp 
Smith, and where he had built a stockade and indifferent 
barracks. 

Col. Smith was the father of Hon. Winfield Smith, of 
Milwaukee. He was superseded in command by Col. 
NiNiAN PiNKNEY in the fall of 1822, by whose orders the 
troops were then moved back to Fort Howard, which was 
fully repaired, and thenceforward made the rendezvous for 
all the troops and army operations of the upper country. 

In the fall of 1823 Col. John McNeill succeeded Col. 
PiNKNEY, and was himself relieved the next year by Gen. 
Hugh Brady. 

During the two years that Col. Smith occupied Camp 
Smith — which was half a mile back from the river — the fol- 
lowers of the army had ensconced themselves along the river 
bank, just below and in front of the stockade, where they 
had erected numerous sheds, or shanties, in which were 
gathered various articles of trade. This little nondf^script 
village obtained the sobriquet of " Shantytown," which the 
locality wears to the present time. It had three principal 
traders — Robert Irwin, Jr., who had built a good residence; 
Daniel Whitney, the most enterprising trader in the north- 
west, who had erected a good store and filled it with goods, 
and William Dickinson, who was a pushing trader, and 
who built a store and dwelling house. 



82 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Henry S. Baird, having resided at Mackinaw two years 
previously, removed with his wife to Green Baj'" in Septem- 
ber, 1824, and soon after built and occupied a house at Shan- 
tytown, and a little later Judge James D. Doty built a fine 
dwelling just above. A court house and jail — the first west 
of Lake Michigan — were erected here. 

In 1829 the Green Bay mission school, under the fostering 
care of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was opened under 
the care of Kev. Richard F. Cable, superintendent, who was 
the earliest permanent resident missionary of the Episcopal 
church west of Lake Michigan. By an act of the Legisla- 
ture of 1833, children could be received by indenture and 
educated and brought up by the school. Mr. Cable con- 
tinued in charge of the mission school until February, 1834, 
when, feeling aggrieved at some complaints which were 
made in relation to his punishment of some of the children, 
he withdrew from its immediate superintendence. The 
school was devoted principally to the education of the 
children of the poor, and rendered a valuable service to the 
community. 

By an act of the Legislative Council, approved October 21, 
1829, the first Protestant Episcopal church west of Lake 
Michigan was incorporated. The act prescribed "That 
Richarb F. Cable, as rector; Daniel Whitney and Albert 
G. Ellis, as wardens; James D. Doty, William Dickinson, 
John Lawe, Alexanber J. Irwin, John P. Arnbt, Samuel 
W. Be ALE, Robert Irwin, Jr., and Henry'" S. Bairb as ves- 
trymen," be incorporated by the name of "The Rector, 
Wardens, and Vestry of Christ Church, Green Bay." 

Rev. Mr. Cable rendered his clerical services for a long 
time to this church gratuitously, and in January, 1834, a 
vote of thanks was given to him by the wardens and vestry. 

The first newspaper printed in the territory which now 
constitutes the State, was published at Green Bay on the 
the 11th of December, 1833, by J. V. Suybam and Albert G. 
Ellis. Its title at first was Green Bay Intelligencer^ and 
after the twentieth number there was added to its title 
Wisconsin Democrat. The size of the sheet was twelve 
inches by eighteen, contained four pages with four columns 
in each page, each column two and one half inches by fif- 
teen. It was published semi-monthly, and the subscription 
price was two dollars per annum. After the fourth number 
Mr. SuY'BAM withdrew his connection with the paper and it 



GREEN BAY — 1634 TO 1836. 83 

was continued by Mr. Ellis alone until the twenty-first 
number, on the 27th of June, 1835, when Charles C. P. 
Arndt was associated with Mr. Ellis, and continued the 
connection through the second volume. Owing mainly to 
the difficulty of obtaining materials and skilled labor, the 
publication was suspended from April IG, 1834, to August 
2d, and again from August 21, 1834, to April 9, 1835, with 
the exception of one number, October 9, 1834.^ The first 
volume, No. 2G, was completed September 5, 1835. 

The second volume vv^as commenced as a weekly by 
Messrs. Ellis and Arndt September 12, 1835, and continued 
with much greater regularity. 

About the first of August, 1835, a new weekly paper of 
somewhat larger dimensions appeared, published by Will- 
iam Stevenson, under the title of Wisconsin Free Press. 

After the second volume of the Intelligencer and Demo- 
crat, the paper passed into the control of Charles C. 
Sholes, by whom it was greatly enlarged, and edited and 
published under the title of Wisconsin Democrat. 

Subsequently, commencing in October, 1842, the Green 
Bay Republican was published by Henry O. Sholes. 

In 1830 the Indian agency was fixed at this place, under 
Major Brevoort. The erection of a church edifice and 
school building by the Roman Catholics in charge of Father 
Gabriel Richard soon followed. Father Richard was 
afterward the Delegate in Congress for Michigan Territory. 
A few years subsequently, commencing in 1832, Navarino 
and Astor below, and Depere above, absorbed the trade, as 
well as the inhabitants of Shantytown, and its existence 
was only in name. 

Mr. Baird in his " Recollections " published in the 4th 
Vol. of the Coll. of St. Hist. Soc, p. 197, says: 

" There were in lSi;4 at Green Bay but six or eight resident American families, and the 
Famihes of the officers stationed at Fort Howard, in number about the same. The char- 
ncter of the people was a compound of civilization and primitive simplicity exhibiting the 
light and hvely characteristics of the French and the thoughtlessness and improvidence 
of the Aborigines. Possessing the virtues of hospitality, and the warmth of heart unknown 
to residents of cities; untrammelled by the etiquet and conventional rules of modern 
'high life,' they were ever ready to receive and entertain their friends and more hitent 
upon the enjoyment of the present than to lay up store or make provision for the future. 
* * * They deserve to be remembered and placed on the pages of history, as the first 
real x>ioneers of Wisconsin. " 

Ebenezer Childs arrived at Green Bay in May, 1820, 
being then twenty-three years of age. He was a carpenter. 



84 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

In 1821 he went to St. Louis in a bark canoe by the Fox and 
Wisconsin Rivers, and returned by the Illinois and Chicago 
Rivers. John P. Arndt and family came to the Bay about 
1825, and in 1827 he and Col. Childs built a saw-mill on 
the Oconto river. The same year Col. Childs with a son of 
Judge Arndt, went to the southern part of Illinois, where 
they bought a drove of 262 cattle, of which they succeeded 
in driving 210 safely to Green Bay. In 1829 Col. Childs was 
appointed Sheriff of Brown county, and held the office until 
183G, when he resigned it and was elected to the Territorial 
Legislature. He was repeatedly re-elected. In 1852 he 
removed to La Crosse where he spent the remainder of his 
days. 

Gen. Albert G. Ellis, who was born August 24, 1800, 
arrived at Green Bay the 1st of September, 1822. For about 
six years he was engaged in teaching school, at the same 
time performing the services of the Episcopal church as a 
lay reader. In 1828 he was appointed Deputy U. S. Sur- 
veyor and surveyed the private land claims at the Grand 
Kaukalin, and the Williams' grant at the Little Kaukalin, 
and at a future day was largely engaged in surveying the 
public lands. 

Gen. Ellis, who in connection with John V. Suydam 
commenced the publication of the first newspaper printed 
within the present limits of Wisconsin, was a member of 
the first and of several subsequent Territorial Legislatures 
and was elected speaker in 1842-3. In 1838, he was ap- 
pointed by President Van Buren, Surveyor General of Wis- 
consin and Iowa. When a Land Office was established at 
Stevens Point in 1853, he was appointed Receiver of Public 
Moneys and removed to that place where he has ever since 
lived. 

James Duane Doty came to Detroit in 1818. In 1820 in 
company with Governor Cass, he went on an expedition to 
the sources of the Mississippi River. On the 20th of Janu- 
ary, 1823, an act of Congress was passed "to provide for the 
appointment of an additional Judge for the Michigan Ter- 
ritory." Mr. Doty was appointed to this office by President 
Monroe. In the fall of 1823 he went to Prairie du Chien for 
the purpose of making it his residence, and remained there 
until the following May term of his court. During that 
time he procured the establishment of a post-office there 
and was appointed postmaster. 



GREEN BAY— 1634 TO 1846. 85 

Judge Doty removed to Green Bay in 1824, and continued 
to reside there until 1S41, when, having been appointed 
Governor of the Territory, he removed to Madison where he 
lived until 1844, when he was succeeded by N. P. Tallmadge 
and removed to Doty's Island, between Neenah and Me- 
nasha. In 18G1, he was appointed Superintendent of Indian 
Affairs for Utah, where he immediately removed. He was 
subsequently appointed Governor of that Territory, and 
continued to reside there until his death on the 13th of 
June, 18G5. 

Judge Doty was repeatedly elected Delegate in Congress 
for the Territory of Wisconsin, and was appointed Governor 
of the Territory in 1841. After the admission of the State 
into the Union, he w^as twice elected a member of the House 
of Representatives. He was a member from Winnebago 
county of the convention which framed the first constitu- 
tion. 

Morgan L. Martin came to Green Bay in 1827 where he 
has ever since resided; he was a lawyer of distinction, and 
more recently Judge of the County Court of Brown county 
with civil jurisdiction. He was for many years a member 
of the Territorial Legislature, and in 1845 was elected 
Delegate in Congress for the Territory. He was a member 
and President of the convention which framed the present 
constitution of the State, and has since been a member of 
the State Legislature. 

Green Bay owed much of its progress and prosperity to 
the citizens whom we have particularly mentioned; as it 
did also to many others who are not specifically named. 



86 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 

The time of the first settlement, and even of the first visi- 
tation, of Prairie du Chien, by any white man, is involved 
in uncertainty. 

It is presumed that Hennepin, in 1G80, was the first civil- 
ized human being to behold this site of rare natural beauty. 
It could not have escaped his notice; but as he makes no 
mention of it, the inference is legitimate that it was not 
then occupied even as an Indian village. 

It is not remarkable that Marquette and Joliet, in their 
descent of the Wisconsin river into the Mississippi, in 1673, 
should not have visited or seen it, as it was three or four 
miles above the route they must have taken, and obscured 
from their view by the trees and vegetation upon the bank 
and islands of the Wisconsin river. 

It would seem that there was a military post on the Mis- 
sissippi, near the Wisconsin river, as early as 1G89 — prob- 
ably at Prairie du Chien — as the ofiicial document of the 
French taking possession of the Upper Mississippi, by 
Nicholas Perrot, May 8, 1689, has among the witnesses 
" Monsieur De Borieguillot, commanding the French in 
the neighborhood of the Ouiskonche, on the Mississippi." 

It is stated by Rev. Alfred Brunson, " as well as I (he) 
can ascertain," that the first settlement at Prairie du Chien 
was made by a trader or hunter, whose name was Cardi- 
nelle, who, with his wife, came from Canada in 1726, and 
made a small farm. The tradition about this settlement, so 
far as relates to the date, is very questionable. 

After the death of this man, the date of which is not 
known, his wife was again and repeatedly married, and 
finally died at this place as recently as 1827, and is supposed 
to have attained the great age of one hundred and thirty 
years. 

The name of the next settler, according to Dr. Brunson, 
was Ganier, whose descendants still remain there. 

About the year 1737 a French trading post was established, 
and a stockade built around the buildings to protect them 
from the Indians, and occasionally a voyageur got married 
and settled down on a piece of land; but little progress or 



PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 37 

improvement was made in the place so long as its business 
was limited to Indian trade; for whatever enterprise the 
Indian trader possessed in his normal pursuit, he had none 
which tended to the development and settlement of the 
country. 

It is said in a report made in 1818 to the house of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States, by the committee on public 
lands, of which Hon. George Robertson, of Kentucky, a 
very able and careful writer, was chairman, that in the 
year 1755 the government of France established a military 
post near the mouth of the Ouisconsin; that many French 
families established themselves in the neighborhood and 
established the village of Prairie du Chien. 

But some doubt is cast over this statement by the omis- 
sion of Capt. Carver, in his " Travels," to make any men- 
tion of there being any white inhabitants at the place when 
he visited it in 17GG, although he describes the large Indian 
town, to which the Indians had removed about thirty years 
before, from their village on the Wisconsin, about five miles 
above its mouth, and he says that the traders who had ac- 
companied him, took up their residence for the winter at 
the Yellow river, on the opposite side of the Mississippi, 
only about ten miles above Prairie du Chien, This they 
certainly would not have done if there had been a settle- 
ment of whites near the mouth of the Wisconsin river. 

It does not appear probable that the trading post and 
stockade established in 1737 — if any such were established — ■ 
or the military post established in 1755 by the French gov- 
ernment, if any was then established, were permanently 
maintained, or that either had any existence as late as 1780 
or 1781. There was a tradition among the old settlers, testi- 
fied to in 1820, in the testimony taken in relation to private 
land claims, that the old fort was burned in 1777. 

It appears quite certain that in 1781 Gov. Patrick Sin- 
clair, of Mackinaw, at a treaty with the Indians, purchased 
their right and title to Mackinaw, Green Bay and Prairie 
du Chien, and a tract at the latter place six leagues up and 
down the river and six leagues back, and that so far as re- 
lated to Prairie du Chien, the purchase was made for and 
in behalf of the traders, by three of whom — Bazil Guird, 
Pierre Antua and Augustin Ange— the payment in goods 
was made. 

Michael Brisbois settled at Prairie du Chien in 1781, 



88 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

where lie continued to reside for fifty-six years. He died in 
1837, at the age of seventy-seven years, and was buried by 
his son, in accordance with his request, on a prominent 
bluff back of Prairie du Chien. He left several children, 
who continue to reside where their father lived so long. 

In his "Early History of Wisconsin," Dr. Brunson says 
that, according to the statements of Michael Brisbois, there 
were twenty or thirty settlers at Prairie du Chien when he 
went there, and twelve years later (1793) there were forty- 
three farms and twenty or thirty village lots claimed and 
occupied, most of which had been built upon. The most of 
these settlers were hunters, traders, and voyageurs who, 
taking wives of the natives, prosecuted farming upon a 
small and primitive scale in a way not to interfere with 
their other employments. 

Mr. Brisbois, besides being a trader, carried on the busi- 
ness of baking and farming to some extent. He gave to the 
inhabitants tickets for fifty loaves of bread for each one 
hundred pounds of flour they brought to him, and these 
tickets formed a currency with which they carried on trade 
with the Indians and with each other. None of the inhab- 
itants made their own bread, and Brisbois' bake-house was 
their sole dependence for the staff of life. 

About 1807 a trader by the name of Campbell was 
appointed by the United States government sub-Indian 
agent, and also justice of the peace by the Governor of 
Illinois. He was killed at Mackinaw in a duel with one 
Crawford, about a year afterward, and was succeeded in 
both offices by Nicholas Boilvin. 

The coutume de Paris so far prevailed before the laws of 
Michigan v/ere introduced, about 1819, that a part of the 
ceremony of marriage was the entering into a contract 
in writing, generally giving, if no issue, the prop- 
erty to the survivor. "When the parties desired to be 
divorced, they went together before the magistrate and 
made known their wishes, who, in their presence, tore up the 
marriage contract, and according to the custom of the 
country they were then divorced. 

James Aird and Duncan Graham had been engaged in 
the Indian trade from some time during the last century, at 
as early a period, it is supposed, as during the Revolutionary 
war. Their trade was with the Sioux or Dacotahs, among 



PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 89 

whom they spent the winter season, while the summer 
months were spent at Prairie du Chien. 

The most noted character in the history of Prairie du 
Chien during tlie first quarter of the present century was 
Joseph Rolette. He was born in Canada, of a respectable 
French family. He was educated for the Roman Catholic 
church, but, not liking the profession, he quit it, and served 
a regular apprenticeship to mercantile business. 

About the year 1804, having engaged in the Indian trade 
with Mr. Murdoch Cameron, he came to Prairie du Chien, 
where he continued to reside *up to the time of his death in 
1841. He was an active merchant and trader, and a hospi- 
table and generous citizen, and for an Indian trader, he had 
considerable enterprise for the prosperity and improvement 
of the country. He cultivated quite an extensive farm, and 
w^as interested in other improvements. He exercised a very 
considerable political influence, which he devoted to the in- 
terests of his friends, without regard to political considera- 
tions. In 1837 or '28 he was appointed Chief Justice of the 
county court, which office he held until 1830. His wife was 
a woman of culture and refinement, and he left a daughter 
who was married to Maj. Alexander S. Hooe, of the United 
States army. 

Before the war of 1812 Prairie du Chien, and the surround- 
ing country, was beginning to attract the attention of 
settlers, but that event suspended all new settlements. 

It was well known in 1813 that the British meditated the 
occupation of the Illinois Territory, and they had at 
the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin several cannon for a 
fort to be erected at Prairie du Chien, where it was stated 
there were about sixty families, most of whom were engaged 
in agriculture, and where permanent subsistence could be 
obtained for one thousand regular troops. For some un- 
known reason the erection of the fort was not undertaken 
that year by the British. 

In the spring of 1814 the United States government sent 
from St. Louis a company of regulars, under command of 
Lieut. Perkins, and 135 volunteers — dauntless young fel- 
lows from Missouri — to Prairie du Chien. They ascended 
the river in boats, accompanied by Gov. Clark, who 
returned to St. Louis in June. He reported that the regu- 
lars had taken possession of the house formerly occupied 
by the old Mackinaw company, and that the volunteers 



90 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

occupied two of the largest armed boats, under command 
of Aid-de-Camp Kennesley and Captains Sullivan and 
Yeizer, and that when he left the new fort was progressing 
on a most commanding spot. It was finished that month 
and called Fort Shelby. The site of this fort is nearly oppo- 
site the present pontoon railroad bridge, and is where Col. 
H. L. DousMAN, after the removal of the fort to the east 
side of the Marais St. Friole, built an elegant private resi- 
dence. 

From the time of the surrender of the Northwestern posts 
by the British up to the war of 1813, the feelings of many 
of the Indian traders had been in sympathy with Great 
Britain. These traders having learned of the occupation of 
Prairie du Chien in 1814, by a military force, fitted out at 
Mackinaw, in conjunction with some British officers, an 
expedition for its recapture. Lieut.-Col. William McKay 
had been originally a trader, and subsequently became a 
member of the Northwest Fur Company. To him the com- 
mand of this expedition was confided, and for it he was 
well fitted. 

Joseph Rolette, who had been active in commanding 
the Canadians at the capture of Mackinaw from the Ameri- 
cans in 1812, and Thomas Anderson, another trader, 
each raised a company of militia at Mackinaw among 
their engages. There was a small party of eighteen regu- 
lars under Capt. Pohlman. Col. Robert Dickson, who had 
commanded a large Indian force in the capture of the fort 
at Mackinaw, detached a part of his Indian force consisting 
of two hundred Sioux warriors and one hundred Winne- 
bagoes. With this force and a brass six pounder Colonel 
McKay went in boats from Mackinaw to Green Bay, where 
he tarried for some time to increase his numbers, and make 
all necessary preparations. With the accessions obtained 
at Green Bay the entire force now consisted of one hundred 
and fifty whites and four hundred Indians. The force was 
represented in the newspapers of the day to have been 
much larger but the statement now given is upon the au- 
thority of AuGUSTiN Grignon, who was a Lieutenant in a 
company raised at Green Bay, and is undoubtedly correct. 

The expedition moved up Fox River being piloted by 
Capt. Rolette; the whites in six barges and the Indians in 
canoes, and carrying their craft over the " portage " they 
descended the Wisconsin to the old deserted Fox village 



PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 91 

about twenty miles above its mouth where the force halted. 
AuGusTiJsr Grignon, Michael Brisbois and two Indians 
were sent in the night to reconnoiter and ascertain the situ- 
ation of the fort and the American forces within it. They 
brought back with them Antoine Brisbois, who reported 
the American strength of the garrison at sixty. The next 
morning which was Sunday, the 17th of July, 1814, Colonel 
McKay, with the wiiite men and Indians composing his 
force, continued dowm to the mouth of the Wisconsin, and 
thence almost up to the garrison, through a bayou, be- 
tween the islands and the river. They reached the town 
unperceived. The force made a most formidable display, 
greatly to the terror of the inhabitants, and the consterna- 
tion of the garrison. 

The gunboat under command of Capt. Yeiser, with other 
boats, were moored to the bank near the garrison. A severe 
fire was kept up upon the boats, which before sundown of 
the first day moved down stream out of reach of the guns 
of the enemy, carrying with them the provisions and am- 
munition of the garrison. The garrison was then invested. 
Capt. Rolette and Anderson, with their companies and 
the Sioux and Winnebago Indians, took post above the 
fort, while Col. McKay, with the Green Bay company, the 
regulars, and Menomonee and Chippewa Indians encom- 
passed it below. A flag was sent in, borne by Capt. Ander- 
son, demanding the surrender of the garrison, which 
Lieutenant Perkins the commandant, promptly declined. 
For four days the gallant little force in possession of the 
fort successfully resisted the persistent attacks of the 
enemy, the number of which including Indians was more 
than nine times larger than the American force. On the 
fourth day Col. McKay having become desperate ordered 
cannon balls heated red hot in a blacksmith's forge, to be 
fired upon the garrison stockade which was of wood and 
easily ignited. Lieut. Perkins perceiving that longer re- 
sistance was worse than useless, and would be criminal 
folly, raised a white flag. Two officers met Col. McKay 
and the result was a surrender to him of the fort and public 
stores, the Americans being permitted to retire unmolested 
in boats down the river. The formal surrender was post- 
poned until the next morning, the 21st of July. 

Several days elapsed before arrangements were completed 
for sending the prisoners down the river, during which 



92 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

time their lives were in the most imminent danger the ut- 
most exertions of Col. McKay being necessary to prevent 
their indiscriminate massacre by the infuriated Indians. 
At length the Col. succeeded in getting the soldiers on 
board the large boat — the Governior Clark — which a short 
time before had brought them up the river, and the boat 
proceeded on its return, under the protection of an escort 
sent by Col. McKay. The Indians however pursued the 
retreating soldiers, and did not relinquish the pursuit until 
they had passed Rock Island in safety. 

Capt. PoHLMAN with his regulars remained in command 
of the garrison, now called Fort McKay, with the two 
Mackinaw companies one under command of Capt. Ander- 
son, and the other of Lieut. Graham, who succeeded Capt. 
Rolette in command, he having been sent to Mackinaw 
with dispatches, immediately after the surrender. Colonel 
McKay with the Green Bay troops and the Indians took 
their departure soon after. 

The British occupation of the fort continued until peace 
in 1815, and the inhabitants were ordered to do duty in and 
about the garrison during the war. Upon the advent of 
peace the fort was evacuated. 

Brevet General Smythe, Colonel of a Rifle Regiment, came 
to Prairie du Chien in June, 1816 with a detachment of 
U. S. troops to erect Fort Crawford. He selected the mound 
whe?;e the stockade had been built, which he repaired and 
occupied. He also appropriated the ground in front of the 
stockade, which included the most thickly inhabited part of 
the village. The arrival of Col. Smythe and his troops was 
very unwelcome to the settlement generally. He ar- 
rested Michael Brisbois on a charge of treason for hav- 
ing taken up arms against the United States, and sent him 
to St. Louis. 

In the spring of 1817, Col. Talbot Chambers having as- 
sumed command of Fort Crawford, ordered the houses in 
front of and about the fort to be taken down by tlieir 
owners, and removed to the lower end of the village, where 
he pretended to give them lots. The officers, particularly 
while Col. Chambers was in command, treated the inhabi- 
tants as a conquered people, arraigning and trying them by 
courts martial and sentencing them to ignominious punish- 
ment. 

Charles Menard was arrested by order of Col. Chambers, 



PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 93 

brought five miles from his residence under a guard, tried 
by a court martial on a charge of selling whiskey to the 
soldiers, whipped, and with a bottle hung to his neck, 
marched through the streets with music after him playing 
the Rogue's March. 

Joseph Rolette, charged with some immoral conduct, 
was banished to an island about seven miles above the fort, 
where he was obliged to pass the winter; and there were 
numerous other acts of tyranny perpetrated by the officers 
upon the inhabitants. 

Fort Crawford was continued at the site of the old stock- 
ade on the island until the year 1831, when the stone fort 
was built on the high ground east of the Marais St. Friole. 
The new fort was occupied by U. S. troops until June 9, 
1856, when the troops were removed. 

On May 27, 1857, the entire military reservation, including 
the fort and buildings in connection with it, was sold by 
the United States at auction and the site of the old fort has 
since been occupied by St. Mary's Institute, as a convent, 
built in 1872, which is conducted by the School Sisters of 
Notre Dame. 

In the fall of J 815, Capt. John Shaw went up the River 
from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien with a boat and a stock 
of merchandise, and there engaged in some little traffic. 
The next year he returned with a large boat and full load of 
merchandise. He thought it would be a good locality for a 
grist mill, and having found a sufficient water power at 
Fishers' Coulee, four miles above Prairie du Chien, he 
promised the people he would erect one. He made two 
other trips in 1816 and also trips every year until 1820, and 
in 1818 built the grist mill he had promised, which was a 
great convenience to the people. 

In September, 1816, James H. Lockwood arrived at Prairie 
du Chien via Mackinaw, Green Bay and the Fox and Wis- 
consin rivers. Judge Lockwood was born at Peru, Clinton 
County, N. Y., December 7, 1793. He studied law about a 
year, and then engaged as a merchant clerk. He was 
clerk in a sutler's store which brought him to Mackinaw in 
1815. The transition from clerk to a sutler on the frontier, 
to engaging in the Indian trade, was easy and natural, and 
soon resulted in his removal to Prairie du Chien. Here he 
proved himself a useful citizen; he occupied many positions 
of trust, both public and private, and was faithful in all. In 



94 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

1830, he was appointed one of the judges of the county 
court. . When Judge Doty went to Prairie duChien in 1823 
to hold his first court there were no lawyers, and Mr. Lock- 
wood was induced to commence the practice, but his prin- 
cipal occupation was that of trader and merchant which he 
continued until nearly the close of his life, which was spent 
at Prairie du Chien. He died at his home August 24, 1857. 
In an article prepared by him for the State Historical 
Society, published in the second volume of its collections, he 
says, when he arrived at Prairie du Chien 

" There were four companies of riflemen under command of Brevet Major BIohgan, 
buOdinjj the old fort. * * * John W. Johnson, a gentleman from Maryland, was U. S. 
Factor, with Jlr. Belt as assistant and book-keeper, and John P. Gates as interpreter. 
Col. Alesahder McNair, late Governor of Missouri, had the sutling of the fort, and his 
nephew, Thomas McNair, and John L. Findlet were the clerks in his employ, and had 
charge of the business. (They were both afterwards superseded by Wilfred Owens, of 
Kentucky.) 

"There were then of the old traders residing at Prairie du Chien Joseph Rolette, 
MiCELiEL Brisbois, Francis Bouthillier, Jean Baptiste Farribault and Nicholas Boil- 
tin." 

Mr. Shaw in his "Personal ISTarrative" gives the additional 
names of Antoine Brisbois, Jean B. St. Jean. Messrs. Tier- 
court, Bennett and Palen. He says: 

" Rolette was regarded as the largest trader there and reputed wealthy." 

To quote further from Judge Lockwood's article. 

" Tradition says the place toolc its name from an Indian chief of the Fox tribe by the 
name of Chien or Dog, who had a village somewhere on the Prairie, near where Fort 
'Crawford now stands. Chien or Dog is a favorite name among the Indians of the 
Northwest. 

There were on the Prairie about forty farms cultivated along under the bluffs where the 
«oLl was flrst-rate, and enclosed in one common field, and the boundaries between them 
generally marked by a road that afforded them ingress and egress; the plantations run- 
ning from the bluffs to the Mississippi on the slough of St. Friole, and from three to five 
arpents wide (35 to 53 rods wide — an arpeut is 11 rods). The owners did not generally hve 
immediately on their farms, but clustered together in little villages near their front. * * 
They were living in Arcadian simplicity, spending a great part of their time in fishing, 
hunting, horse-racing or trotting, or in dancing and drinking. * * * * They had no 
aristocracy among them except the traders who were regarded as a privileged class." 

#* *** *** *** 4::]c:f;4::f::[;:]C9(c 

" Prairie du Chien was at this time an important post for Indian trade, and was consid- 
ered by the Indians as neutral ground, where different tribes, although at war, might visit 
in safety; but if hostile they had to beware of being caught in the nf^Isbborliood, going or 
returning. Yet I never heard of any hostile movement on the Prairie, after they had 
gafelv arrived," ************** *i.- 

" At that time there were generally collected (annually) at Pi-airie du Chien, by the 
traders and United States factors, about three hundred packs, of one hundred pounds 



PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 95 

each, of fui-s and peltries— mostly fine furs. Of the different Indian tribes that visited and 
traded more or less at Prairie du Chien , there were the Menomonees from Greeu Bay, who 
frequently wintered on the Mississippi ; the Chippewas, who resided on the headwaters of 
the Chippewa and Black rivers; the Fcxes, who had a village where Cassville now stands, 
called Penali. i. e., Turkey; the Sauks, who resided about Galena and Dubuque; the Win- 
nebagoes, who resided on the Wisconsin river; the lowas, who then had a village on the 
Upper Iowa river; Wabashaw's band of Sioux, who resided on a beautiful prairie on the 
Iowa side of the Mississippi, about 130 miles above Prairie du Chien, with occasionally a 
Kickapoo and Puttowataraie. The Sauks and Foxes brought from Galena a considerable 
quantity of lead." 

The quantity of lead exchanged by the Indians for goods 
in one season (1810) is stated by Nicholas Boilvin, in a 
letter to the Secretary of War, to have been four hundred 
thousand pounds. 

In the spring of 1817 a Roman Catholic priest from St. 
Louis, called Father Prieee, visited Prairie du Chien, but he 
did not long remain. 

In 1819, the United States government having instructed 
Col. Leavenwokth to establish a military post at or near 
the mouth of the St. Peters river, on the land purchased in 
1806, by Gen. Pike, Maj. Thomas Foesyth, Indian agent, 
under instructions from the Department of War, left St. 
Louis on the 8th of June with a keel- boat loaded with goods 
to be delivered by him to the Sioux Indians above Prairie 
du Chien. Maj. Forsyth arrived at the Prairie on the 5th 
of July, where he remained for more than a month waiting 
the arrival of the troops. Here Red Wing's son was wait- 
ing for him, and The Leaf, the principal chief of the Sioux, 
arrived that evening. Both begged importunately for goods. 
Maj. Forsyth told them he could not give them any goods 
at that place; that he meant to go up with the troop to the 
River St. Peters, and would stop at their different villages 
and speak to them and give them a few goods. 

On the 8th of August, a part of the troops having arrived 
and the remainder being reported on the way, Col. Leaven- 
worth and Maj. Forsyth set out for St. Peters river* with 
the troops, consisting of ninety-eight rank and file and four- 
teen batteaux and two large boats, loaded with provisions 
and ordnance, and stores of different kinds, besides Maj. 
Forsyth's boat and goods and the colonel's barge. The 
whole expedition arrived at their destination on the 24th of 
August, and the post was established immediately at the 
mouth of the St. Peters, which was occupied by the govern- 
ment for many years and known as Fort Snelling. 



96 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Two companies of the Fifth Infantry accompanied Col. 
Leavenworth to Prairie du Chien, and occupied Fort Craw- 
ford, under command of Maj. Muhlenberg. 

At the session of Congress of 1819-20, an act was passed 
to take testimony relative to the private land claims at Sault 
St. Mary, Mackinaw, Green Bay, and Prairie du Chien, 
which were reserved to subjects of the British government 
under Jay's treaty; and in the fall of 1820 commissioners 
were dispatched to the different places to take testimony. 

A Mr. Lee came to Prairie du Chien. Most of the claims 
here came under Jay's treaty, but several did not. At a 
subsequent session of Congress an act was passed giving to 
every settler who was in possession of land at the date of 
the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, and 
who had continued to submit to the laws of the United 
States, the lands he claimed. In consequence of the attitude 
of some of these settlers toward the government during the 
war with England, the patents were delayed, to their great 
anno3^ance and injury. 

On the 17th of September, 1821, an act was adopted by the 
Governor and Judges of Michigan Territory, to incorporate 
" The Borough of Prairie des Chiens." It provided for the 
annual election of a warden, two burgesses, a clerk, treas- 
urer, and marshal. That the borough in legal meeting 
assembled should have power to levy taxes, to be collected 
by the marshal. That the wardens and burgesses might 
lay out highways, streets, and public walks, and should have 
other specified powers to provide for an effective municipal 
government. 

The borough was duly organized, and John W. Johnson 
was elected the warden, and the first burgesses were M. 
Brisbois and Thomas McNair. The organization was kept 
up for three years, and in 1825 it was discontinued by non- 
user. The last warden was Joseph Rolette, and the last 
burgesses were M. Brisbois and James H. Lockwood. 

Col. Hercules L. Dousman came to Prairie du Chien in 
the autumn of 1827 in the employ of the American Fur 
Company, where he continued to reside until his death Sept. 
12, 18G8. He was greatly respected and highly esteemed 
and accumulated an ample fortune, which he used liberally 
in promoting the growth and prosperity of his adopted 
home. 

In 1828, Gen. Joseph M. Street came to Prairie du Chien 



PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 97 

having been appointed Indian agent. The next year he 
brought his family, which was the first one settled at that 
place that made a profession of religion in the Protestant 
faith. 

Thomas P. Burnett was appointed sub-Indian agent in 
October, 1829, under Gen. Street, and came to Prairie du 
Chien in June, 1830. 

By a proclamation of Gov. Cass, dated October 2G, 1818, 
by virtue of the ordinance of 1787, the county of Michili- 
mackinac was laid out, the southern boundary of which 
was 

" The dividing ground between the rivers which flow into Lake Superior, and those which 
flow south." 

By another proclamation of Gov. Cass, of the same date, 
all of the Territory of Michigan, south and west of the 
county of Michilimackinac, was divided into two counties 
which were separated 

" By a hue drawn due north from the northern boundary of the State of Illinois through 
the middle of the portage between the Fox river and Ouissin (Wisconsin) river, to the 
county of Michilimackinac.'" 

The eastern county was called "Brown" in honor of the 
then commanding general of the army; the other was 
called " Crawford " in compliment to the then Secretary of 
War. 

. The following day, Oct. 27th, the following appointments 
were made by Gov. Cass: 

For Brown county, Matthew Irwin, Chief Justice, Com- 
missioner and Judge of Probate; Charles Reaume, Asso- 
ciate Justice and Justice of the Peace; John Bowyer, 
Commissioner; Robert Irwin, Jr., Clerk; and George 
Johnston, Sheriff. For Crawford county, Nicholas' Boil- 
viN and John W. Johnson, Justices of the Peace. 

The following appointments for Crawford county were 
made by Gov. Cass May 12th, 1819, viz.: Joh^^ W. John- 
son, Chief Justice; Michael Brisbois and Francis Bouth- 
illier, Associate Justices; Wilfred Owens, Judge of 
Probate; Nicholas Boilvin, John W. Johnson and James 
H. LocKWOOD, Justices of the Peace; Thomas McNair, 
Sheriff; John L. Findley, Clerk; Hyacinth St. Cyr and 
Oliver Sharrier, Supervisors of Roads; and John P. 
Gates, Register of Probate and ex-officio Recorder of Deeds. 

Gov. Cass sent by Col. Leavenworth, when on his way 
to the St. Peters River, blank commissions for the different 
7 / 



98 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

officers of Crawford county, to be filled up with such names 
as should be selected by the inhabitants. They assembled 
and selected the persons above named. 

The first court held in Brown county of which any record 
is preserved, was a special session of the county court, 
held July 12, 1824, Jacques Porlier Chief Justice; John 
Lawe and Henry B. Brevoort, Associates. These judges 
had superseded those first appointed in 1818. 

In 1828, John W. Johnson and Frances Bouthillier hav- 
ing removed away, Joseph Bolette was appointed Chief 
Justice and Jean Brunet, Associate Justice. Subsequently 
in 1830, the county court was re-organized and General 
Joseph M. Street was appointed Chief Justice and James 
H. LocKWOOD and Hercules L. Dousman Associate Jus- 
tices. 

The first term of the county court of Crawford county was 
held at Prairie du Chien, May 12, 1823, Frances Bouthil- 
lier and Joseph Eolette, Judges. A grand jury was im- 
paneled but no indictments were found. No criminal busi- 
ness and but little civil business was done and after granting 
two tavern licenses and making a decree that " the proceed- 
ngs" of James H. Lockwood are legal and proper, adjourned. 

The next year, Ma}^ 11, 1824, the court, composed of the 
same judges, met and adjourned until the 17th of the same 
month "for want of juries." 

On the 17th a grand jury was impaneled and returned 
an indictment against J. B. Maynard, who was duly called 
but came not, and the court ordered that 

" On his arrival at this place, he do enter in recognizance for his appearance at the next 
term of this court to answer and'plead, etc." 

No other term of the court was held until May, 1826, and 
after that, no other until 1830. In November, 1830, a term 
was held with Joseph Rolette as Chief Justice and Jean 
Brunett, Associate Justice. 

Thomas P. Burnett, a lawyer from Kentucky, was ad- 
mitted to practice in the court. 

A grand jury was impaneled and foimd eight indict- 
ments for selling liquor by " small measure." 

The court adopted rules of practice and thereafter the 
business in court was transacted more systematically. 

The next term of the court was in November, 1831, when 
Joseph M. Street was Chief Justice and James H. Lock- 
wood and Jean Brunett were Associate Justices. It seems 



CHEQUAMEGON. 99 

that Mr. Dousman, who had been appointed, did not accept 
the position. 

The history of the settlements at Green Bay and Prairie 
du Chien is now brought down to a time when they cease 
to have a purely local interest. As settlements were now 
beginning to grow up in other parts of the Territory, espe- 
cially in the lead mines, the subsequent historical events 
connected with these two principal settlements form a legit- 
imate part of the history of the whole. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CHEQUAMEGON — PORTAGE — MILWAUKEE. 
CHEQUAMEGON, 

The early settlement at Chequamegon, on Lake Superior — 
if it can be called a settlement — earlier, even, than Green 
Bay, is not especially noticed for the reason that, although 
it was the field of the first missionary labors within the lim- 
its of Wisconsin, as early as IGGo, yet its growth was confined 
to missionary work, which was quite limited, and it has 
never, until a very recent period, acquired any importance 
in any other respect. 

Very soon after the conquest of Canada by the English, 
a company of adventurers from England undertook to work 
the copper mines of Lake Superior. They, however, met 
with but little success, and soon relinquished their scheme. 
They had long been preceded by others, as there is abun- 
dant evidence of the working of these mines at some far 
distant period, and by some unknown people. In some of 
the old mines not only stone hammers have been found, but 
a copper gad, much battered; a copper chisel, with a socket 
for the handle; a copper knife, fragments of a wooden bowl, 
numerous levers of wood, remnants of charcoal, and pits 
have been sunk following the course of veins extending in 
continuous lines, and upon a mound of earth thrown out of 
one of them, grew a pine tree ten feet in circumference, and 
upon another a hemlock tree was cut, the annular growths 
of which counted 395 years. These evidences of a prehis- 
toric people excite our curiosity without satisfying it. 



100 HISTORY OF THE TERRITOKY OF WISCONSIN. 

PORTAGE. 

The settlement at the " Portage" was so nearly contem- 
porary with that at Green Bay and Prairie clu Chien as to 
be worthy of notice in the same connection. The first white 
men to visit the " Portage" were Joliet and Marquette, 
and their guides and companions, five in number, who 
"made the portage" in June, 1673, and reached the Missis- 
sippi river on the 17th of that month, although Nicolet 
was at Green Bay in 1634, and ascended the Fox river some 
distance, probably as far as the portage. Seven years later 
(1680) Hennepin and Du Luth reached the portage on their 
return from the falls of St. Anthony. Le Sueur and his 
party made the portage in 1683, on his way to the Missis- 
sippi. 

The first settler at the portage was Laurent Barth. He 
was a trader from Mackinaw. Returning in the spring of 
1793, with his family, from the St. Croix river, where he 
had traded the previous winter in company with Jacques 
PoRLiER and Charles Reaume, of Green Bay, he stopped 
here and purchased from the Winnebagoes the privilege of 
transporting goods over the portage. This was the com- 
mencement of the settlement at that point. The Indian 
habitations near there increased immediately, but the set- 
tlement was not augmented much by white men for many 
years. Barth first built a house on the low ground, but it 
became overflowed, and he removed the next year to the 
high ground half a mile above. 

The next settler was Jean L'Ecuyer, who went there in 
1798, and who also obtained permission to transport goods 
over the portage. The goods were hauled over in carts. 
Barth had at first only a single-horse cart, but when 
L'Ecuyer came he had several teams and carts, and had 
also a heavy wagon with a long reach, and so constructed 
as to transport barges. 

About 1803 Barth sold to Mr. Campbell, who was ap- 
pointed a few years later the first American Indian agent 
at Prairie du Chien, all his right of transportation, and then 
removed to Prairie du Chien, where he died before the war 
of 1813. 

Campbell soon after sold out his fixtures to L'Ecuyer, 
who supposed that Campbell intended to relinquish the 
business; but he placed his two sons, John and Duncan, 



PORTAGE. 101 

there, and had several teams to convey goods and a large 
wagon to transport barges. Campbell is the same man 
who was killed at Mackinaw in a duel with one Crawford, 
soon after which his business was closed up. In about two 
years afterwards L'Ecuyer sickened and died leaving 
several children. 

After L'Ecuyer's death his widow employed Laurent 
FiLY to carry on the business' for her, and he continued it 
till about 1812, when Francis Roy married a daughter of 
Mrs. L'Ecuyer and took charge of the business and con- 
tinued it many years. 

Sometime after the war with England Joseph RoLETTEcar- 
ried on the transportation business at the portage employing 
Pierre Pauquette to manage it for him. The usual charge 
for transporting goods across the portage was forty cents 
per 100 pounds, and ten dollars for each boat, but extortions 
were often practiced upon those who would submit to 
them. 

There was always, after Barth went to Portage, a con- 
siderable Indian trade there. He sold the remnant of the 
stock which he brought from the St. Croix; and L'Ecuyer 
always kept a large assortment of goods, as did his 
widow and her son-in-law, Roy. Campbell had goods one 
year. Laurent Fily who had been a clerk for L'Ecuyer 
was located there several years as a trader, and died at 
Grand Kau-kau-lin in 184G, at the age of eighty-three years. 
AuGUSTiN Grignon Spent two winters in trade there from 
1801 to 1803 and Jacques Porlier early spent two or three 
winters there. 

For thirty -five years after Barth went there, the number 
of white settlers at the portage did not increase, there being 
no business except the transportation across the portage 
and a small Indian trade; but the location and erection of 
Fort Winnebago at that point effected a very great change. 

Previous to the Indian War of 1827, it had been common 
for Red Bird's band of Winnebago Indians to levy contri- 
butions on the traders while crossing the portage. In con- 
sequence of this, and for the protection of the now increas- 
ing population from the hostility of the Indians, Major 
(afterwards General) David E. Twiggs, was ordered to the 
portage in the summer of 1828 with three companies of the 
1st Infantry to build a fort. The officers of his command 
were Capt. Brevet Maj. Beall; Capt. Spencer; Capt. (af- 



102 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

terwards General) Harney; 1st Lieut, Gaines Miller; Isfc 
Lieut, Jeff, Davis, who was also quartermaster (President 
of the Confederate States); 1st Lieut, (afterwards General) 
Abercrombie; 2nd Lieut, Be all, afterward General in the 
Confederate army; 2nd Lieut, (afterwards General) Bur- 
bank and 2nd Lieut. Lamotte, A beautiful plateau of 
ground was selected on the east side of Fox River, which 
gracefully meandered around three sides of the selected 
site. It was elevated forty or fifty feet above the river and 
had a commanding view of the surrounding country for a 
considerable distance. Upon this plateau was erected Fort 
Winnebago, The officers and soldiers lived in tents, until 
temporary log barracks were built, in which they spent the 
winter of 1828-9, Parties of soldiers were sent up the Wis- 
consin River where they cut and floated down pine logs, 
and during the winter they were employed in cutting the 
logs into lumber and timber with whip-saws, and in making 
shingles. Brick were made near the Wisconsin River, and 
lime was obtained at Bellefontaine, about twelve miles 
northeast. The erection of the buildings was commenced 
in 1829, but the fort was not completed and enclosed till the 
summer of 1832. In 1828, the only houses at the portage 
were a log house in charge of Pierre Pauquette belonging 
to the American Fur Co., the Indian agency house occupied 
by John H. Kinzie, sub-agent, two others occupied by half 
breeds, and a nice house owned by Francis LeRoy, 

The 1st Regiment was relieved by four companies of the 
5th Infantry in July, 183L 

In 1827, Congress appropriated $2,000 for the purpose of 
opening a road from Green Bay to the Wisconsin portage. 
In the year 1830 $5,000 was added to this sum, and the route 
extended to Fort Crawford; and in 1832 and 1833, an ad- 
ditional sum of $5,000 was appropriated in each year, mak- 
ing a total of $17,000 none of which had yet been expended. 

Lieut, W. A. Centre and James D. Doty were appointed 
commissioners to make a reconnoisance of the country and. 
a survey of the route. They completed their work in Sep- 
tember, 1833. The route of the road from Green Bay, was 
on the east side of Fox River and Lake Winnebago, over 
the present traveled road through De Pere, Wrightstown, 
Stockbridge, Brothertown, Calumet, Taycheda, Fond du 
Lac, Lamartine, Green Lake, and Bellefontaine to Fort 
Winnebago. From Fort Winnebago the route passed 



PORTAGE. 103 

through the present village of Poynette on the railroad 
from Portage to Madison, and through Cross Plains fourteen 
miles west of Madison on the railroad to Prairie du Chien. 
Five miles west of Cross Plains it came to the great 
dividing ridge, which divides the waters which flow into 
the Wisconsin River from those which flow southerly. It 
followed this ridge to within six miles of the mouth of the 
Wisconsin River, which was then crossed and the road then 
went to Fort Crawford. 

The work of constructing this road was delayed until 
1835, when it was opened and so far completed as to admit 
of travel. The force employed was the U. S. troops. From. 
Green Bay to Fond du Lac, the troops were in charge of 
Lieut. Alexander, and from Fond du Lac to Fort Craw- 
ford, in charge of Capt. Harney, Capt. Low and Capt 
Martin Scott. 

In 1838 another appropriation of $5,000 was made by 
Congress for the completion of the road, which was mostly 
expended between Depere and Fond du Lac. 

Previous to the settlement of Madison in 1837 and 1838, 
this was the only travelled route between Fort Winnebago 
and the western portion of the Territory, 

The primitive manner of transporting goods up Fox River 
in Durham boats is thus described by Mr. Henry Merrill: 

" It was necessary for them (the freighters) to assemble a large rmmber of Indians at 
the Rapids to help them over with the boats. At Grand Kau-kau-lin. they had to unload 
and cart the goods about one mile, and the Indians going into the water pushed, lifted 
and hauled the boats over the rapids; then reloading them, poled them up to the Grand 
Chute, where Appleton is now situated. There they had to unload and carry the goods 
up a hill and down the other side above the Chute, which was a perpendicular fall of three 
or four feet. The Indians would wade in, as many as could stand around the boat, and 
lift it over while the others had a long cordelle, with a turn around a tree above, taking 
up the slack and pulling as much as they could. Wlien the boats were over they were 
re-loaded and pushed ahead and poled from there to Fort Winnebago. Excepting in low 
water they would have to make half loads over the Winnebago Rapids at Neenah, and 
with a fair wind would sail through Lake Winnebago." 

In 1834 Henry Merrill was offered the post of sutler at 
Fort Winnebago, which he accepted, went to New York, 
bought a stock of goods which he had shipped to that place, 
and entered upon his duties, and conducted a general mer- 
cantile business. He resided here from that time until his 
death, and acquired a handsome fortune. During his long 
residence in Portage he always commanded the greatest 
respect. He was a member of the Senate in the first State 



104 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Legislature. His name was intimately connected with that 
of the early settlers of Wisconsin. He died May 5, 1876, 
after a busy life, without a blemish on his record. 

MILWAUKEE. 

The settlement of Milwaukee by the whites cannot be said 
to date back earlier than 1834 or 1835. But, being the 
metropolis of the State, events connected with its anterior, 
and especially its very early, history, possess such a general 
interest as justifies a separate reference to them. 

The earliest mention of Milwaukee, that has been found, 
is in a journal of Lieut. James Gorrell, of the British 
army, who had command of the military post at Green Bay 
from October, 1761, to June, 1763. Under date of August 
21, 1762, speaking of a party of Indians which had come 
from Milwaukee, he says : 

" They made great complaint of the trader amongst them. « * * jjg came 
from. Mishamakinak." 

From the same journal, under date of March 25, 1763, it 
appears that — 

" One GoDDARD, a trader from Montreal, had sent orders to his clerk, a Canadian, to 
Bend word to the Mihvacky Indians, and desire them not to come here (Green Bay), but 
stay at home, and he would send goods to them in the spring; the contrary of what he 
told them last faU." 

These extracts furnish very satisfactory evidence that as 
early as 17G2 there was an Indian town at Milwaukee, with 
an English trader there, who had come from Mackinaw, 
and was probably the same " Goddard" who came to Green 
Bay with Capt. Belfour in October, 1761. 

AUGUSTiN Grignon's " Recollections," 3 Col. of Hist. So., 
p. 290-292, contain much information in relation to the early 
trade at Milwaukee with the Indians. From his statement 
it appears that Alexander La Framboise, from Mackinaw, 
was located at Milwaukee with a trading establishment at 
Mr. Grignon's earliest recollection — say 1785. After a while 
he returned to Mackinaw and sent a brother to manage the 
business for him, who remained there several years and 
raised a family. 

In 1789 Jean Baptist Mireandeu, a Frenchman, had a 
blacksmith shop on the spot where the splendid chamber of 
commerce was erected in 1879-80. 

About the year 1800, La Framboise having failed, an- 
other trader established a post there, and employed as his 



MILWAUKEE. 105 



clerk Stanislaus Chappue. This trading house was con- 
tinued until about 1805. Chappue died in 1854, a few miles 
above Marinet, on the Menonionee river. 

While Chappue was thus employed as clerk, and soon 
after he went there, John B. Beaubien also established a 
trading post there. 

About 1804 or 1805 Laurent Fily was sent with a supply 
of goods by Jacob Franks, of Green Bay, to carry on a 
summer trade at Milwaukee. 

Jacques Vieau, of Green Bay, connnenced trading at 
Milwaukee previous to 1805, and continued it regularly 
every winter — except that of 1811-12 — until 1818, when Sol- 
omon Juneau, who had married his daughter, went there 
first as his clerk, and then on his own account. Juneau 
erected a permanent dwelling on a site which is now be- 
tween Michigan and Huron streets, on the east side of East 
Water street, and became the first permanent and abiding- 
settler, and lived to see the field of his Indian traffic become 
the theater of an immense commercial trade. He died in 
1856. 

After the war with Great Britain James Kinzie was sent 
there by the American Fur Company with a stock of goods, 
but did not remain long; and Hypolite Grignon wintered 
at Milwaukee about the time Mr. Juneau went there. 

The Green Bay Intelligencer of April 16, 1834, contains 
this editorial : 

" The Milwaukee country is attracting much attention. A settlement has commenced 
near its mouth; and there can be no doubt it will be much visited during the coming sea- 
son by northern emigrants, and by all who fear the bUioiis fevers and other diseases of 
more southern latitudes. Two or three yovmg men from the State of New York have com- 
menced the erection of a satv-mill on the first rapid, about three miles above the mouth of 
the Milwaukee river." 

In May, 1835, the fractional township (T. 7, R. 22 E.), in 
which the city of Milwaukee is situated, was first offered at 
a public sale, to be held at Green Bay, August 31, 1835. Mr. 
Juneau purchased by right of pre-emption, and the common 
consent of those attending the land sale, a tract between the 
Milwaukee river and the lake. Byron Kilbourn and his 
associates purchased an extensive tract on the west side of 
the Milwaukee river, which for some years was called Kil- 
bourntown, and George H. Walker made a claim on the 
south side of the river, for which he ultimately obtained a 
patent, and which was known as Walker's Point. Some of 



106 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the most valuable tracts adjoining these were obtained by 
" floats," and in that mode or by cash purchases, nearly the 
entire township passed from the government to individuals. 

Among those who came to Milwaukee in 1835 were Dan- 
iel Welis, Jr., W. AV. Oilman, George D. Dousman, 
Talbot C. Dousman, E. W. Edgerton, J. Hathaway, Jr., 
James Sanderson, James Clyman, Otis Hubbard, Samuel 
Brown, George O. Tiffany, Daniel H. Richards, Benoni 
W. Finch, George Reed, Enoch Chase, Horace Chase, 
William Brown, Jr., Milo Jones, Enoch Darling, Albert 
Fowler, C. Harmon, B. Douglass, W. Maitland, Alanson 
Sweet, Henry West, James H. Rogers, Samuel Hinman, 
Mr. Loomis, Dr. Clarke, and Mr. Childs, and there were 
many others. 

On the 12th of December, 1835, the first public meeting of 
citizens for public purposes was held at the house of Mr. 
Childs. B. W. Finch was called to the chair, and Dr. 
Enoch Chase appointed secretary. The object of the meet- 
ing was stated by the chairman to be to adopt measures for 
petitioning Congress for appropriations for internal im- 
provements, etc. Several committees were appointed to 
draft memorials, petitions, etc., and the meeting adjourned 
for one week. 

On the 19th of December the meeting reassembled and, in 
the absence of the chairman, B. Douglass was called to the 
chair. Petitions for the passage of a pre-emption law ; for 
an appropriation for constructing a canal from Milwaukee 
to Rock river; and another for a light-house and harbor, 
were reported and adopted. 

A committee, consisting of Lieut. Clyman, Albert 
Fowler, Alanson Sweet, and Drs. Chase and Clarke, was 
appointed to correspond with the settlers of the mining 
country on the subject of a communication between the two 
places. 

Alanson Sweet, Henry West, and Horace Chase were 
appointed a committee to draft a petition to Congress for 
an appropriation to make the Chicago and Green Bay road. 

A number of buildings were erected in 1835, and there 
was a wonderful spirit of speculation in lands, lots, and 
claims on the public lands. 



NEW YORK INDIANS. 107 



CHAPTER X. 

NEW YORK INDIANS. 

From 1818 to 1822, there was a combination of influences 
dissimilar in motive but perfectly consonant in purpose, all 
operating simultaneously, which resulted in the removal of 
a part of the New York Indians, to lands secured for them 
near Green Bay. 

The Holland Land Company, having a pre-emption right 
of purchasing from the Indians their reservations, which 
right had been confirmed by the state of New York, sold it 
in 1810 to David A. Ogden, who with his associates were 
known as the " Ogden Land Company." This company, 
for the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title and thereby 
perfecting its own, conceived the plan, in 1817-18, of secur- 
ing in the West, by consent and aid of the general govern- 
ment, an extensive grant of land from the western tribes, 
as a home or hunting ground for the several tribes of the 
New York Indians. One of the first steps was to secure 
the consent and co-operation of the War Department. 

The Stockbridge and Brothertown Indians had a small 
reservation of thirty-five square miles in Oneida count^^ 
These Indians, influenced by an educated and eloquent 
young chief, Solomon U. Hedrick, and their resident mis- 
sionary, John Seargeant, became anxious to obtain a 
suitable tract of land west of the lakes to which they might 
remove and where they could have a permanent home. 
They obtained the influence and aid of the American Board 
of Missions, by which the late Dr. Jedediah Morse— whose 
name is identified with the history of education in Amer- 
ica, by the publication of his Geography, Atlas and Gazet- 
teer, and who was the father of S. F. B. Morse the inventor 
of the electric telegraph — was induced to undertake the 
mission of selecting a proper location. Preliminary to this 
undertaking application was made to the Secretary of War, 
that he be commissioned to make a general tour among the 
northwestern Indians, with a view to forming a better un- 
derstanding between them and the Government. 

In 1816-17, Eleazer Williams, the same who afterwards 
advanced the fictitious and preposterous claim to be the 
Dauphin of France, Louis 19th, appeared among the Oneida 



108 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Indians. Born among the St. Regis Indians, of which tribe 
his mother was a native, and with whom he had Hved until 
he was fourteen years old, the Indian language was his 
native tongue. He spent his boyhood from the age of 14 to 
19 in New England schools and acquired a good English 
education and was tolerably conversant with the Christian 
system and with theology. He was withal a natural ora- 
tor and most graceful and powerful speaker. He was com- 
missioned by Bishop Hobakt as catechist and lay reader to 
the Oneida Indians. Great success attended his missionary 
work, as the result of which the Bishop confirmed about 
fifty communicants. 

But the field for the labors of this missionary confined, as 
it was to about fifteen hundred Oneidas, was more limited 
than his ambition. Whether the idea originated with him, 
or whether it was suggested by the Ogden Land Company, 
or borrowed from the Stockbridges, he proposed to the 
Oneidas in 1818, a grand emigration scheme and a confed- 
erated Indian Government. This scheme contemplated 
that the Oneidas, and all other New York Indians, with 
many of those in Canada and the Senecas at Sandusky, 
should remove to the neighborhood of Green Bay, and there 
unite in one grand confederacy of cantons, but all under 
one federal head. The contemplated government was to be 
a mixture of civil, military and ecclesiastic, the latter to 
predominate. The older and more sober minded of the 
Oneida chiefs lent no favor to the plan, but some of the 
younger men were more captivated with it, and some of the 
young hereditary chiefs were drawn into it. He also en- 
ticed a few of the young men of each of the other tribes of 
the Six Nations, to enter into his scheme. He next addressed 
the "War Department, soliciting its countenance and assist- 
ance to enable a delegation of twenty, from the several 
tribes of the Six Nations, to visit the western tribes, for the 
purpose of obtaining a cession of country for a new home. 

The Southern States, and their representatives in Con- 
gress and in the executive departments, regarded with ex- 
treme jealousy the rapidly advancing power of the free 
States. By the ordinance of 1?87, slavery was forever pro- 
hibited in any States to be formed in the Northwest Terri- 
tory; and the northern boundary of Illinois M'as by an act 
of Congress purposely extended more than sixty miles north 
of the boundary prescribed by the ordinance, in the vain 



NEW YORK INDIANS. 109 

expectation that the country north of it could never acqun^e 
sufficient strength in wealth or numbers to claim admission 
as a State in the Union. 

During the administration of Mr. Monroe, John C Cal- 
houn was Secretary of War, and lent his sanction to a plan 
to devote the territory west of Lake Michigan and north of 
Illinois as an Indian Territory, in which to colonize all the 
remaining tribes in the Northern States. 

It excites no surprise, therefore, that the Secretary of AVar 
yielded a ready acquiescence in, and co-operation with, the 
plans and application of the Ogden Land Company, Dr. 
Morse and Mr. Williams. The application which had been 
made in behalf of Dr. Morse was granted, and he spent the 
summer of 1820 in visiting several of the northwestern 
tribes, fifteen days of which were spent at Green Bay, where 
he was the guest of Col. Smith, and where he devoted his 
best efforts to securing a western retreat for the Stockbridge 
and other New York Indians. 

In response to the application of Mr. Williams, the War 
Department gave orders to the several superintendents of 
Indian affairs, and commandants of military posts, to issue 
to the delegates of the different tribes of New York Indians, 
not exceeding twelve, certain amounts of rations, blankets, 
powder, lead, etc., and to facilitate their movements on their 
journey. A requisition also was ordered to be made on the 
naval officer at Detroit for a vessel to take the delegates 
from Detroit to Green Bay, if there was any fit for service. 

A copy of these orders was furnished Mr. Williams, and 
on the 22d of July, 1820, he arrived with the delegation at 
Detroit and called on Gen. Cass, then Governor of Michigan 
Territory and superintendent of Indian affairs. 

On his arrival at Detroit Mr. Williams learned that a 
treaty had been made with the Menomonees a few days be- 
fore, in which they had ceded to the United States forty 
miles square of their land in the immediate vicinity of Fort 
Howard. This purchase of the very land Mr. Williams 
most desired, frustrated all his plans, and for the present, 
at least, defeated all his hopes; and as there was no govern- 
ment vessel there fit for service he, with his delegation of 
Indians, retraced their steps to the State of New York. 
That State took the cause of the Indians in its keeping, and 
the treaty was rejected by the Senate, and this impediment 
to the emigration project was removed. 



110 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The next year a similar order was made by the War De- 
partment, and Mr. Williams, with fourteen delegates from 
the tribes of Stockbridge, Oneida, Onondaga, Tuscarora, 
Seneca, and St. Regis Indians, being joined at Detroit by C. 
C. Trowbkidge, deputed by Gov, Cass, proceeded to Green 
Bay, where they arrived August 5, 1S21. A very large por- 
tion of the Menomonees, influenced by the French inhabit- 
ants, the traders, and many of the half-breeds, were opposed 
to any cession of lands. But on the 18th of August a 
treaty was made, signed by some of the chiefs and head 
men of the Winnebagoes and Menomonees, by which the 
land was ceded from Grand Kau-kau-lin to the rapids at the 
Winnebago lake, and extending on each side of the river, 
up and down, equi-distant with the lands claimed by the 
Menomonees and Winnebagoes. This treaty was approved 
by the President of the United States, but its vahdity was 
always denied by a large part of the Menomonees. 

On returning to New York, Mr. Williams found a more 
formidable opposition to his proceedings than he had met 
at Green Bay. A large part of the Stockbridges, Oneidas, 
Onondagas, Tuscaroras and all the Senecas were opposed 
to the treaty. 

In 1823 a new order was obtained from the War Depart- 
ment, which still continued to favor the enterprise, provid- 
ing for another visit to Green Bay. The delegation was 
larger than that of the previous year, and John Sargeant, 
Jr., succeeded Mr. Trowbridge, on the part of the United 
States. They reached Green Bay the 1st of September. The 
Winnebagoes and Menomonees were soon assembled at the 
agency house at Green Bay, but the Winnebagoes refused 
all further negotiations, and soon retired up the river. After 
making the payments agreed upon in the treaty of the 
previous year, followed by feasting, dancing and a general 
hilarity of two days, there was much negotiation and a 
conference which continued for several days, the result of 
all of which was that on the 23rd day of September, 1822, a 
new treaty was^made between the chiefs assuming to rep- 
resent the Menomonees, and those assuming to represent 
the Stockbridge, Oneida, Tuscarora, St. Regis and Munsee 
Indians, by which the former tribe purport to cede to the 
latter tribes, all their lands, east, north and west of those 
ceded the previous year. 



NEW YORK INDIANS. HI 

This treaty was approved by the President, March 13, 1823, 
with some modifications of the boundaries. 

A small party of about fifty Stockbridges located late in 
the fall of this year, at the Grand Kau-kau-lin on the east 
side of the river, and were joined the next year by a party 
of Munsees. A small party of the Brothertowns reached 
Green Bay the second year (1823) and located at Little Kau- 
kau-lin on the east side of the river. A small party of 
Oneidas came at the same time and located at the same 
place where they remained until 1825, when they removed 
to Duck Creek. 

The treaty of 1822 excited, if possible, more opposition 
among the Menomonees, than that of the previous year and 
a large part of the tribe, probably a majority, were deter- 
mined that they would disregard it. There was no less 
opposition to the treaty among most of the New York 
Indians who were resolved not to emigrate. 

On the 11th of August, 1827, a treaty was made at Butte 
des Morts between Gov. Cass and Thomas L. McKinney, 
commissioners on the part of the United States, and the 
Chippewas, Menomonees and Winnebagoes, the chief object 
of which was to declare the boundaries between these 
tribes. In the second article of this treaty it is declared that 
the difficulties between the Menomonee and Winnebago 
tribes, and the tribes or portions of tribes of the State of 
New York, and the claims of the respective parties, as well 
with relation to tenure and boundaries as to the authority 
of the persons who signed the treaties, be referred to the 
President of the United States, whose decision should be 
jSnal. The resolution of the Senate, ratifying this treaty, 
contained a provision, that it should not affect any right or 
claim of the New York Indians, which destroyed the effect 
of the second article of the Cass treaty. 

In 1830, Eeastus Root and James McCall of New York, 
and John T. Mason, Secretary of Michigan Territory, were 
appointed commissioners by the United States to effect an 
adjustment of the whole matter between the Wisconsin 
Indians and the New York Indians. Eight days were spent 
in council and every effort made to reconcile the Menomo- 
nees to the claims in whole or in part of the New York In- 
dians. Nothing could be done. The Menomonees were 
inflexible. They would agree to nothing except that, as 
the New York Indians were in the country, they might stay 



112 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

during good behavior, but must be regarded as tenants at 
will and having no interest in the land. 

About this time Col. Samuel C. Stambaugh was ap- 
pointed Indian agent at Green Bay by General Jackson. 
On the 8th of November, 1830,' he left Green Bay with a 
delegation of fourteen Menomonee chiefs to visit Washing- 
ton with a view to making a treaty there for the sale of 
a part of their lands to the United States. On their 
arrival there on the 11th of December, the President ap- 
pointed Gen. Eaton, Secretary of War, and Col. Stam- 
baugh, commissioners to make a treaty. 

After several delays and much informal negotiation the 
Commissioners and the Menomonees met and on the 8th of 
February 1831, agreed upon a treaty, in which it was pro- 
vided that a tract of land should be set apart as a home for 
the New York Indians bounded as follows: Beginning on the 
west side of Fox River, near the little Kau-kau-lin at the 
'Old Mill Dam'; then northwest forty miles; then northeast to 
the Oconto river; then down the Oconto, and up and along 
Green Bay and Fox River to the place of beginning contain- 
ing about 500,000 acres, excluding private claims and the mil- 
itary reservation. The treaty in the first article limited the 
time of the removal and settlement of the New York In- 
dians upon the lands to three years. It further provided 
in the sixth article, that if the New York Indians then in 
Wisconsin, should not remove to and settle on the ceded 
land within three years, the President should direct their 
immediate removal from the Menomonee country. On the 
17th day of February, 1831, a supplementary article was 
added to the treaty, which provided, that instead of the lim- 
itation of three years contained in the first article, the 
President should prescribe the time for the removal and 
settlement, and that the removal of the Indians, mentioned 
in the sixth article, should be left discretionary with the 
President. 

This treaty not having been acted upon at the session 
which terminated March 4th, 1831, a further stipulation was 
made on the 15th of March, that it should be laid before the 
Senate at its next session, with the same effect as at the 
late session. 

The amendments made on the 17th February did not 
reconcile the New York Indians to the treaty, and they re- 
newed their opposition to it at the next session. The result 



NEW YORK INDIANS. 113 

was that the treaty was ratified by the Senate on the 25th 
June, 1832, with an amendment in the interest of the New 
York Indians, which provided that two townships of land 
on the east side of Winnebago Lake, equal to forty-six 
thousand and eighty acres, should be laid off for the use of 
the Stockbridge and Munsee tribes, and one township ad- 
joining, equal to twenty-three thousand and forty acres, 
should be laid off and granted for the use of the Brother- 
town Indians; and that the Stockbridge, Munsee and Broth- 
ertown Indians should relinquish to the United States all 
their claims to any other lands, on the east side of Fox 
River, and that the United States should pay the Indians 
for their improvements thereon. 

The amendment of the Senate also provided that the 
southwestern boundary of the 500,000 acre tract on the 
western side of the Fox River, should be extended south- 
westerly far enough to add to it 200,000 acres, and that the 
same number of acres should be taken from the northeast 
side. 

On the 27th October, 1832, a council w^as held at Green 
Bay, by George B. Porter, Governor of Michigan Terri- 
tory, commissioned for that purpose by the President, with 
the representatives of the Menomonees, Stockbridges, 
Munsees, Brothertowns, St. Regis and Six Nations. The Me- 
nomonees assented without objection to so much of the Sen- 
ate amendment as related to the three townships of land on 
the east side of Lake Winnebago, but proposed a modifi- 
cation of the southwestern boundary line of the 200,000 
acres added on the southwest side, not however affecting 
the quantity of land added. All the New York Indians, in- 
cluding the St. Regis and Six Nations (generally known as 
Oneidas), accepted and agreed to the Senate amendments, 
with the modification proposed by the Menomonees, and 
requested that they might be ratified and approved by the 
President and Senate of the United States. 

The conflict with the Wisconsin Indians, which had its 
origin in the three separate schemes of the Ogden Land 
Company to make its pre-emption rights available, of the 
Stockbridge, Munsee and Brothertown Indians, to obtain a 
more desirable home, and of Eleazer Williams to build up 
a grand Indian nation, fostered and encouraged as these 
schemes were by John C. Calhoun, to render it impossible 
that more free states should be organized out of the North- 
8 



114 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

west Territory, by setting it apart for the sole dominion of 
Indian tribes, was now terminated. This conflict had con- 
tinued for more than twelve j'ears, and the result had fallen 
so far short of the grand hopes and castles in the air, built 
by Williams, that he abandoned forever his Utopian scheme 
and devoted his time to the establishment of his more vis- 
ionary fiction, that he was the Dauphin— the " Lost Prince" 
of the house of the Bourbons. 

The schemes of the Ogden Land Company, of relegating 
to the wilds of Wisconsin the Indians who occupied the 
lands in New York, which the company coveted so much, 
was attended with the same disaster, and the project of ob- 
taining a home for them near Green Bay was abandoned, 
to be succeeded by a provision for their transfer a few 
years later to a reservation made west of Missouri, in the 
southeastern part of what has since become the State of 
Kansas, where a reservation of nearly two million acres 
was, by treaty, entered into January 15, 1838, made for — 

" A permanent home for all the New York Indians now residing in the State of New 
York or in Wisconsin, or elsewhere in the United States." 

The hopes of the Secretary of War, and of all others who 
shared them, of abridging the area of freedom, were also 
disappointed. 

The New York Indians, who had removed or desired to 
remove to Green Bay, were the onh^ parties to the original 
plan of emigration that were satisfied with the result. The 
whole of the Stockbridges, Brothertowns, and part of the 
Munsees, with about eleven hundred Oneidas, moved soon 
after to their respective locations, and the community of the 
Oneidas has been continually augmented by the annual ac- 
cession of small parties from New York. 

By a treaty made with the United States, February 3, 
1838, the Oneida Indians, in consideration of $33,500, ceded 
to the United States all their title and interest in the land 
set apart to them by the treaties of 1831 and 1832, reserving 
a tract of one hundred acres to each individual of the 
Oneidas, to be surveyed by the government as soon as prac- 
ticable, so as to include all their settlements and improve- 
ments. 

By this treaty the possessions of the Six Nations were 
reduced to a tract of about eight miles by twelve, contain- 
ing about sixty-one thousand acres. About two thousand 
of these people now live on this tract, who are slowly pro- 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR. I15 

gressing in civilization. There is a missionary church and 
school in the settlement, under the fostering care of the 
Protestant Episcopal church. About one hundred and fifty 
families, comprising about seven hundred and fifty persons, 
compose the church congregation, of whom about two hun- 
dred and fifty are communicants. 

The Brothertown Indians had entirely laid aside their 
aboriginal character, to the extent even of having lost their 
vernacular, and adopted the English language, and w^ere in 
a fit situation to abandon their tribal relations and become 
citizens of the United States. Congress, therefore, by an 
act approved March 3, 1839, provided that the township of 
land granted for their use by the Menomonees, should be 
partitioned and divided among the different individuals 
composing the Brothertown tribe, and be held by them sep- 
arately and severally in fee simple. And that thereafter 
each of them should be citizens of the United States, and 
their rights as a tribe or a nation should cease and deter- 
mine. Since then they have been recognized as citizens; 
have been elected members of the Legislature, and to other 
offices imder the Territorial and State governments, and 
have become homogeneous with the other inhabitants of the 
State. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE LEAD MINES AND W^INNEBAGO WAR. 

The history of General Smith is as complete in relation to 
the Indian disturbances in Wisconsin, as to the early ex- 
plorations of the valley of the Mississippi, and this chapter 
is largely made up of extracts from that rare and valuable 
work. 

Indian wars with their attendant horrors and savage 
atrocities have ever been concomitants of the primitive 
permanent settlement of every part of the American conti- 
nent from those which followed the settlements at James- 
tovv-n and Plymouth to the latest conflicts with the savages 
of the Territories. 

Indian traders in the ISTcrthwest were suffered to pursue 
their vocation for nearly two hundred years without mo- 



116 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

lestation, for the reason, doubtless, that the articles of traflBc 
which they exchanged for furs and peltries contributed to 
the gratification of the tastes of the aborigines and to their 
success in hunting, fishing and trapping. 

Besides the few missionaries who gave no offense to the 
Indians, and who were the apostles of the gospel of peace, 
there were no inhabitants who were not directly or remotely 
connected with the Indian trade, who for reasons already 
stated were suffered to pursue their vocation during this 
long period without interruption. Moreover, a large pro- 
portion of these traders were Frenchmen, many of whom 
had intermarried with the Indians of the various tribes, 
and their hybrid progeny exerted a powerful influence in 
creating a kindly feeling towards all French people. 

But very different feelings pervaded the savage breast 
towards those who came to occupy the country for agri- 
cultural purposes; and, consequently, as they rightly be- 
lieved, to impair its value for their nomadic use. And most 
especially were the Winnebago Indians jealous of, and 
determinedly opposed to, any intrusion upon or occupation 
of the country, which should threaten to interfere with 
their exclusive occupancy of the Lead Mine Region, the sole 
right to which east of the Mississippi, was claimed by that 
tribe. 

Mr. John Shaw has been already mentioned as having 
been engaged between 1815 and 1820, in running a trading 
boat between St. Louis and Prairie du Chien. In one of 
those trips he was aiixious to visit the Lead Mines at 
Galena, with one of his trading boats, but was told by the 
Indians that the " white man must not see their Lead 
Mines;-' but as he spoke French fluently, he was supposed 
to be a Frenchman, and was permitted to go up the Fever 
river with his boat, where he found at least twenty smelt- 
ing places of which he has given the following description: 

" A hole or cavity was dug in the face of a piece of sloping ground, about two feet in 
depth and as much in width at the top; this hole was made in the shape of a mill-hopper, 
and lined or faced with flat stones. At the bottom or point of the hopper, which was 
about 8 or 9 inches square other narrow stones were laid across grate-wise; a channel 
or eye was dug from the sloping side of the ground inwards to the bottom of the hopper. 
This channel was about a foot in width and in height, and was filled with dry wood and 
brush. The hopper being filled witli the mineral and the wood ignited, the molten lead 
fell through the stones at the bottom of the hopper; and this was discharged through 
the eye, over the earth, in bowl-shaped masses called 'plats,' each of which weighed about 
seventy pounds. 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR. 117 

The first occupation of the lead mines by white men 
was in 1822, when Col. James Johnson, brother of tlie fa- 
mous Richard M. Johnson, took possession with a small 
party of men, under the protection of several detachments 
of troops sent forward by order of the War Department. A 
very few persons, probably not more than twenty, spent the 
ensuing winter at Galena. 

Col. Morgan was then in command at Fort Crawford, and 
had charge of the troops, and some sort of treaty or agree- 
ment was probably made between him and Col. Johnson on 
the one part, and the Indians on the otlier, by which the oc- 
cupancy by the whites was assented to; but whatever it 
was, it does not appear to have been ratified by, if ever sub- 
mitted to, the Senate. 

In 1823, some accessions were made to the population ; 
and in August, by a census then taken, there were seventy- 
four persons, men, women and children, of whom a number 
were negroes. The total product of lead shipped that year 
was 425,000 pounds.* 

There was a slight increase of immigration in 1824, and 
the mines at Hazel Green and New Diggings were discov- 
ered, and worked with great profit. 

Two officers of the ordinance department — Maj. Ander- 
son and Lieut. Burdine — were sent out to protect the inter- 
ests of the government; and subsequently Lieut. Martin 
Thomas was appointed superintendent of the inines. 

The fame of the Upper Mississippi lead mines, and their 
fabulous value and richness, had been spread far and wide 
throughout the Mississippi Valley; and by the year 1825, 
the desire for gain and love of adventure and spirit of mi- 
gration had taken possession of its inhabitants, especially in 
Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, so that the de- 
termination to occupy and utilize these mines of wealth 

♦"Amount of lead niaiiufactured : 

In 1835 439,473 lbs. 

1820. . . 1,500,.53U lbs. 

1837 6,834,389 lbs. 

1838 12,957,100 lbs. 

1829— first quarter 2,494,441 lbs. 

"Estimated number of inhabitants: 
I°1825 200 

^^^^ 1,000 

1827 

^^^^ 10,000 

"About one-twentieth are females, and one hundred are free blacks." 



118 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

could no longer be restrained by any pretensions of the red 
man to the exclusive right of their possession. 

The time had now come when this beautiful country was 
to be occupied by a hardy, resolute, adventurous and perse- 
vering population. The laws which, as a rule, generally 
confine the migration of the human race to isothermal 
zones and similarity of climate, were to be set at defiance, 
and the emigrant from the mild climate of Tennessee, Ken- 
tucky, Missouri and southern Illinois was to exchange the 
balmy and genial atmosphere to which he had been accus- 
tomed, for one in which during nearly half the year all na- 
ture is bound with icy chains and covered with its robe 
of snow. But no matter ! The migratory spirit stimulated 
by the greed for suddenly acquired wealth, and the irre- 
pressible love of adventure, had taken possession of the 
pioneer immigrants to the lead mines, and the years of 1825 
and 1826 witnessed a rush of emigration which had never 
before had its parallel, and the like of which has never since 
been seen, unless in the migration to California some twen- 
ty or more years subsequently. 

These pioneers came in search of lead, and nearly all with 
the expectation of soon getting rich and returning to the 
homes they left behind them. Many came in the spring and 
returned upon the approach of winter, thus exhibiting so 
close a resemblance to some of the piscatory tribe that they 
received the designation of "suckers," and the results of 
their temporary and unsystematic labor were known as 
"sucker holes." 

Others, however — some attracted by success and some 
compelled by the necessities resulting from ill luck — re- 
mained, and soon became permanently attached to the 
country, which they had visited at first only as an adventur- 
ous experiment. 

Galena was the objective point of all the earliest immi- 
grants, as it was the first point at which their mining and 
smelting operations were begun. But the mines in the 
immediate vicinity of Galena were not adequate to meeting 
the wants and expectations of the thousands of adventurers 
who were flocking to it, and they sought new fields of dis- 
covery, and many with such success that it soon became 
evident that the extent of the lead district was far greater 
than their first impressions had led them to suppose. Mines 
were soon opened at Hardscrabble, Council Hill, Vinegar 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR 119 

Hill, East Fork, New Diggings, Biincome, batches, Gratiot's 
Grove, Shullsburg, Stump Grove, Wiota, Sinsinniwa, Me- 
nomonie, Big Patch, Platteville, Snake Hollow, Beetown, 
Rattle Snake, Crow Branch, Strawberry, Mineral Point, 
Dodgeville, Blue Mound, Sugar River and at many other 
points. 

Such was the march of progress in the development of 
these newly discovered lead mines, that during the first three 
years of their occupancy, and before the Indian title was 
extinguished, the lead product exceeded fifteen million 
pounds, and this, notwithstanding the continued disturbance 
of the settlers by Indian hostilities, against which they were 
wholly dependent upon themselves for protection, until, by 
their own well directed efforts, governmental protection 
was no longer necessary. 

During these first three years of the settlement of the lead 
mines, the pioneer occupants o^ the hunting grounds of 
the Winnebagoes lived in constant apprehension of the re- 
sentment of this numerous and savage tribe, who regarded 
such occupancy as an unwarranted invasion of their coun- 
try, for which they appeared determined to be revenged. 

In the summer of 1825 a grand council, or treaty, was held 
at Prairie du Chien, with the different tribes of Indians. 
Gov, Cass, of Michigan, and Gen. Clark, of Missouri, super- 
intendents of Indian affairs for their respective regions, 
were commissioners on the part of the United States. The 
Indian tribes represented were the Sioux, Sauks and Foxes, 
Chippewas, Winnebagoes, Menomonees, lowas, and a por- 
tion of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomie tribes liv- 
ing upon the Illinois. The object of this treaty was to make 
a general and lasting peace between these tribes, and also 
to settle the boundaries between them respectively. Gov. 
Cass, when asked what good he thought would result from 
it, shrugged his shoulders and smiling, said: "They would 
have it so at Washington." A treaty of j^erpetiial peace 
was made, and the boundaries settled between the diiTerent 
tribes, which resulted in keeping the Indians at peace — un- 
til they were ready again to go upon the war-path. 

In October, 1826, by a positive order from Washington, 
the troops were removed from Fort Crawford, up the river 
to Fort Snelling, and Fort Crawford v/as abandoned, the 
commandant taking with him two Winnebago Indians who 
had been confined in the guard-house for some supposed of- 



120 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

fense of a trivial nature. He left behind, in charge of the 
sub-Indian agent, a brass swivel, a few wall pieces, all the 
damaged arms," and some provisions. This removal induced 
the Winnebagoes to believe that the troops had fled through 
fear of them. 

Several times during the winter of 1826-27, some of the 
older citizens of Prairie du Chien, who best understood the 
Indian character, and the peculiarities of the Winnebagoes — 
and especially Mr, Michael Brisbois — expressed serious 
fears of some outrages from those Indians in the spring, 
and that they were bent on war. But it was generally 
thought impossible that, surrounded as they were with 
Americans and troops in the country, they should for a mo- 
ment seriously entertain such an idea. 

In March, 1827, one of the residents of Prairie du Chien 
named Methode, went up Yellow, or Painted Rock creek, 
about twelve miles above the village, to make sugar. His 
wife, said to have been a most beautiful woman, accom- 
panied him with her five children. Besides these and his 
faithful dog, the wolves and the trees were his only com- 
panions. The sugar season being over, and he not returning 
or being heard from, a party of his friends went to look 
for him. Methode's dog was first found, shot with half a 
score of balls, and yet holding in his dead jaws a piece of 
scarlet cloth, which he had apparently torn from an Indian 
legging. After further search the camp was found, con- 
sumed by fire. The whole party of seven had been killed, 
all — Madame Methode in particular, she being enceinte — 
were shockingly mangled. 

It afterward appeared that a party of Winnebagoes had 
been seen near Yellow creek, after Methods had gone 
there, and one of them — Wa-man-doos-ga-ra-ka — having 
been arrested and examined, is said to have confessed his 
guilt, and implicated several others. 

In the spring of 1827 a rumor was very extensively cir- 
culated among the Winnebagoes, and generally believed, 
that the two prisoners of their tribe who had been removed 
from Fort Crawford to Fort Snelling, had been turned over 
to the Chippewas, to run the gauntlet through a party of 
the latter tribe, armed with clubs and tomahawks, and the 
race for life had resulted in the killing of both of them. 
Something like this occurred with reference to some Sioux 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR. 121 

prisoners at Fort Snelling, but the story had no truth as ap- 
plied to the Winnebago prisoners. 

Hitherto the Winnebago chief, Red Bird, had not only- 
been well known at Prairie du Chien, but had the confidence 
and respect of all the inhabitants to such an extent that he 
was always sought after as a protector; and his presence 
was looked upon as a pledge of security against any out- 
break that might be attempted. 

When the unfounded rumors of the killing of the Win- 
nebago prisoners at Fort Snelling were heard and believed, 
the leading chiefs held a council and resolved upon retalia- 
tion; and Red Bird was called upon to go out and "take 
meat/' as they phrase it. Beckoning to We-kau and an- 
other Indian named Chic-hon-sic, he told them to follow 
him. They proceeded to Prairie du Chien, and on the 26th 
of June went to the house of Hon. James H. Lockwood, 
who had left home the previous day, leaving his house in 
charge of his wife, her brother, a young man of sixteen, 
and a servant girl. Red Bird and the other two Indians 
entered the cellar kitchen, loaded their guns in the pres- 
ence of the servant girl, and went up through the hall into 
Mrs. Lockwood's bedroom, where she was sitting alone. 
The moment they entered her room she believed they came 
to kill her, and immediately passed into and through the 
parlor, and crossed the hall into the store to her brother, 
where she found Duncan Graham, who had been in the 
country about forty years as a trader, and was known by all 
the Indians as an Englishman. He had formerly been com- 
mandant at Prairie du Chien, when under British dominion. 
The Indians followed Mrs. Lockwood into the store, and 
Mr. Graham by some means induced them to leave the 
house. 

Red Birdi and his savage accomplices then went the same 
day to McNair's Coulee, about two miles southeast of the 
village, where lived Rijeste Gagnier and his wife with 
two small children — a boy three years old, and a daughter 
aged eleven months; and living with them was an old dis- 
charged soldier by the name of Solomon Lipcap. The 
three Indians entered the cabin, and, such visits being com- 
mon, were received with the usual civility, and were asked 
if they would have something to eat. They said yes, and 
would like some fish and milk. As Mrs. Gagnier turned to 
get the fish and milk, she heard the click of Red Bird's 



122 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

rifle, which was instantly followed by its discharge, and her 
murdered husband fell dead at her feet. At the same mo- 
ment the Indian Chic-hon-sic shot and killed old Lipcap; 
when Mrs. Gagnier seeing We-kau, who had lingered 
about the door, she wrested from him his rifle; but from 
trepidation or some other cause was unable to use it, " feel- 
ing,'' as she expressed it, " like one in a dream, trying to 
call or to run, but without the ability to do either," She 
then, with her oldest child, and bearing the rifle with her, 
ran to the village and gave the alarm. A party of armed 
men returned with her, and brought away the two murdered 
men, and the infant which she had left covered up in the 
bed, which they found on the floor beneath it. The helpless 
child had been scalped by We-kau, who had inflicted upon 
its neck a severe cut to the bone, just below the occiput, from 
which she afterward recovered, and is still living, the 
mother of a family, but despoiled of the glory of her sex. 

On the same day (June 26th), two keel boats commanded 
by Capt. Allen Lindsay, which a few days before had as- 
cended the river laden with provisions for the troops at 
Fort Snelling, passed the mouth of the Bad Axe on their 
way back to St. Louis. On the upward trip some hostile 
demonstrations had been made by the Dakotas, which in- 
duced Capt. Lindsay to ask that his crew should be fur- 
nished with arms and ammunition. Col, Snelling, the 
commanding officer, complied with his request, and the 
thirty-two men of which the crew consisted, were provided 
with thirty-two muskets and a barrel of ball cartridges. The 
Dakotas occupied the right bank of the river, and Capt. 
Lindsay and his men were on their guard against any 
attack from them; but they had no apprehension of any 
attack from the Winnebagoes who occupied the left bank 
of the Mississippi. 

The village of Wa-ba-shaw, the site of the present town 
of Winona, was the lowest point on the river at which they 
expected to encounter the Dakotas. Having passed this 
point in safety, and a strong wind having sprung up, the 
boats parted company, and one of them, the O. H. Perry, 
by the time it reached the mouth of the Bad Axe, was 
several miles in advance of the other. 

In the meantime thirty-seven Winnebagoes, inspired by 
the same common feelings of vengeance, cruelty and hate, 
which had led to the murder of Methode and his family. 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR. 123 

and which was, on that very day, instigating the invasion 
of the peaceful home of Gagnier, and the murder of its 
inmates by Red Bird, We-kau and Chic-hon-sic, had, in 
pursuance doubtless of a common purpose to exterminate 
the whites, concealed themselves upon an island in the 
Mississippi near the mouth of the Bad Axe, between which 
and the left bank of the river, it was known that the two 
keel-boats would pass on their return from Fort.Snelling, 

These boats, in model and size, were similar to ordinary 
canal boats, and furnished considerable protection from 
exterior attacks with small arms, to those on board, who 
concealed themselves below the gunwales. 

As the "Perry" approached the island where these hostile 
savages were concealed, and when within thirty yards of 
the bank, the air suddenly resounded with the Iblood-chill- 
ing and ear piercing cries of the war-whoop, and a volley 
of rifle balls rained across the deck. Of the sixteen men on 
board, either from marvellous good luck, or because they 
were below deck, only one man fell at the first fire. He 
was a negro named Peter, his leg was dreadfully shat- 
tered, and he afterwards died of the wound. 

The crew now concealed themselves in the boat below the 
water line, suffering it to float whithersoever the current 
and the high east wind might drive it. The second volley 
resulted in the instant death of one man, an American 
named Stewart, who had risen to return the first fire, and 
his musket protruding through a loop-hole, showed some 
Winnebago where to aim. The bullet passed directly 
through his heart, and he fell dead with his finger on the 
trigger of his undischarged gun. 

The boat now grounded on a sand bar, and the Indians 
rushed to their canoes, intending to board it. The crew 
having recovered froin their panic, and seeing that the 
only escape from savage butchery was vigorous war, 
seized their arms and prepared to give the enemy a warm 
reception. In one canoe containing several savages, two 
were killed, and in their dying struggles upset the canoe, 
and the rest were obliged to swim ashore, where it was 
some time before those who were not disabled by wounds 
could restore their arms to fighting order. Two of the In- 
dians succeeded in getting on board the keel-boat, both of 
whom were killed. One fell into the water, and the other 
into the boat, in which he was carried down the river; 



124 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

but in this hand-to-hand conflict the brave commander of 
the crew, named Beauchamp, was killed by the first of 
these two boarders, who in his turn was killed by a daring 
sailor named Jack Mandeville — called "Saucy Jack," who 
shot the rash warrior through the head, and he fell over- 
board, carrying his gun with him. 

Mandeville now assumed command of the crew, whose 
numbers had been reduced to ten efl^ective men. He 
sprang into the water on the sand bar for the purpose of 
shoving off the boat and escaping from their perilous posi- 
tion, and was followed by four resolute men of his crew. 
The balls flew thick and fast about them, passing through 
their clothes; but they persisted, and the boat was soon 
afloat. Seeing their prey escaping, the Winnebagoes raised 
a yell of mingled rage and despair, and gave the whites a 
farewell volley. It was returned with three hearty cheers, 
and ere a gun could be re-loaded, the boat had floated out 
of shooting distance, and the survivors were safe, arriving 
at Prairie du Chien about sunset the next day, the 27th of 
June. 

The casualties of this engagement were,two of the crew 
killed, two mortally and two slightly wounded, while it is 
supposed that ten or twelve Indians were killed, and a great 
number wounded. 

The other keel-boat, in which was Capt. Lindsay, had on 
board Mr. William J. Snellinc4, a son of Col. Snelling. 
Mr. Snelling, the son, is the putative author of an inter- 
esting anonymous article in relation to the "Winnebago 
Outbreak of 1827," which was republished in the fifth vol- 
ume "of the Reports and Collections of the State Historical 
Society of Wisconsin, and f re n^ vvhich many of the incidents 
now given are taken. Cap^. Lindsay's boat reached the 
mouth of the Bad Axe about midnight. The Indians opened 
a fire upon her, which was promptly returned; one ball only 
hit the boat, doing no damage; the others passed over harm- 
less in the darkness through which she pursued her way, 
and arrived safely at Prairie du Chien on the 28th. 

A slander upon Capt. Lindsay and his crew is contained 
in Reynolds' "Life and Times," which ought not to escape 
contradiction. It is stated in this work that the two keel- 
boats, in ascending the river, 

"Stopped at a large camp of the "Winnebago Indians on the river, not far above Prairie 
du Chien. The boatmen made the Indians drunk— and no doubt were so themselves — 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR, 125 

when they captured some six or seven squaws who were also drunk. These captured 
squaws were forced on the boats for corrupt and brutal purposes. But not satisfied with 
this outrage on female virtue, the boatmen took the squaws with them in the boats to 
Fort Snelling, and returned with them. When the Indians became sober and knew the 
injuiy done them in this delicate point, they mustered all their forces amounting to 
several hundred and attacked the boats in which the squaws were confined." 

Mr. Snelling, whose means of knowing the facts were far 
superior to those of the author of Reynolds' " Life and 
Times," in the paper to which reference has been made, in 
speaking of the ascent of these keel-boats, says: 

"They passed the mouth of Black river with a full sheet, so that a few Winnebagoes 
who were there encamped, had some difficulty in reaching them with their canoes. They 
might have taken both boats, for there were but three flre-locks on board; neverthele.ss, 
they offered no injury. They sold flsh and venison to the boatmen on amicable terms, and 
suffered them to pursue their journey unmolested. We mention this trifling circumstance 
merely because it wa^ afterwards reported in the St. Louis papers, that the crews of 
these boats had abused these Winnebagoes shamefully, which assuredly was not the 
case." 

It is probable that the St. Louis papers were the author- 
ity upon which the statement now contradicted was made. 
Mr. Snelling also says, that "thirty-seven Indians were 
engaged in this battle."' 

The inhabitants in and about Prairie du Chien were gen- 
erally and very greatly alarmed. They left their houses and 
farms, and crowded into the now dilapitated fort, and speed- 
ily established a very effective discipline. A military com- 
pany was organized, with Thomas McNaie, captain, Joseph 
Brisbois, lieutenant, and Jean Brunet, ensign, all of whom 
had previously been commissioned for these offices by Gov. 
Cass. Mr. Snelling and Judge Lockwood acted as super- 
numeraries under Capt. McNair, and the force was found, on 
muster, to number ninety effective men and women who 
could handle a musket in case of attack. The fort and 
blockhouse were put in as good state of repair as circum- 
stances and material would admit. The swivel and wall 
pieces were found and mounted, and all tl;- blacksmiths 
were put in requisition to repair the condemned muskets. 
Judge Lockwood, fortunately, had an abundance of pow- 
der and lead, which lie liberally furnished, so that the old 
fort and its occupants were in a respectable state of 
defense. 

An old voyageur was engaged to cross the Mississippi, and 
go back through the country to report the situation to Col. 
Snelling at Fort Snelling. He performed his service : and 



12G HISTOEY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

after considerable delay. Col. Snelling came down the river 
with two companies of U. S. infantry. 

An express was sent to Galena, and the effect of the 
alarming news is described by Col. D. M. Parkinson in these 
words : 

"The reports being spread over the country, a scene of the most alarming and disorderly 
confusion ensued — their alarm and constei'nation were depicted in every countenance — 
thousands flocked to Galena for safety, when, in fact, it was the most exposed and unsafe 
place in the whole country. All were without arms, order or control. The roads were 
lined in all directions with frantic and fleeing men, women and children, expecting every 
moment to be overtaken, tomahawked and scalped by the Indians. It was said, and I pre- 
sume with tiuth, that the encampment of fugitives at the head of Apple river, on the first 
night of the alarm, was four miles in extent, and numbered thi-ee thousand persons." 

Gov. Cass, who had come to Butte des Morts to hold a 
treaty with the Winnebagoes, learning from rumor that 
there was dissatisfaction among them, started in his canoe, 
and arrived at Prairie du Chien on the morning of the 4th of 
July. Having ordered into the service of the United States 
McNair's military company, he proceeded hastily in his 
canoe to Galena. There he raised a volunteer company, 
with Abner Fields as captain, William S. Hamilton and 
one Smith as lieutenants, in which D. M. Parkinson was 
sergeant. The command of Fort Crawford was assigned by 
Gov. Cass to Capt. Fields, who, with his company, imme- 
diately proceeded to Prairie du Chien on a keel-boat, and 
took possession of the barracks. Lieut. Martin Thomas, of 
the U. S army, went up and mustered the two companies 
of militia into the service of the government. 

In a few days Col. Snelling arrived with his troops, and 
assumed command of Fort Crawford. He soon after dis- 
charged Capt. Field's company ; but Capt. McN" air's com- 
pany was retained in service until some time in the month 
of August. 

Gov. Cass proceeded from Galena to St. Louis to confer 
with Gen. Atkinson, then in command of Jefferson Bar- 
racks and of the Western military department. This re- 
sulted in Atkinson's removing up the Mississippi with 
the disposable force under his command. 

During this time the miners in the lead mines had organ- 
ized a company of mounted volunteers, which numbered 
over one hundred men, well mounted and armed, and chose 
Col. Henry Dodge as their commander. While it was the 
peculiar duty of this force to protect the settlers of the lead 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR. 127 

mines against any attack of the savages, they were as ready 
to pursue them and give battle as to resist attack. 

Eed Bird and the other Winnebagoes having, a;s was sup- 
posed, fled up the Wisconsin, it was the plan of General 
Atkinson to go up that river in boats; and he also secured 
the co-operation of Col. Dodge and his mounted volunteers, 
who marched to the Wisconsin, a detachment going to 
Prairie du Chien, and the remainder to English Prairie 
(now Muscoda). This mounted force scoured both sides of 
the Wisconsin river from its mouth to the Portage, driving 
every Indian before them. 

Major Whistler, in command at Fort Howard, had been 
ordered to proceed up Fox river with any force at his dis- 
posal, or which might volunteer to aid him. A company of 
Oneida and Stockbridge Indians, sixty-two in number, were 
raised by Ebenezer Childs and Joseph Dickinson, which 
was mustered into Maj. Whistler's detachment at Little 
Butte des Morts. This force arrived on the 1st day of Sep- 
tember, 1827, on the high bluff, where, during the next year, 
the erection of Fort Winnebago was commenced. Here, in 
pursuance of orders from Gen. Atkinson, sent by express 
announcing the approach of his force and Dodge's volun- 
teers, Maj. Whistler encamped to await the arrival of the 
General. 

The Winnebagoes were now in a desperate plight. With 
Col. Snelling in command at Fort Crawford, with a large 
force of regulars and volunteers, confronted by Maj. Whist- 
ler and his troops, and with Gen, Atkinson following their 
retreat, aided by Dodge and his mounted volunteers, who 
drove them out of every hiding place, there seemed to be no 
alternative for them but to appeal to the lenient mercy of 
their pursuers. 

Soon after the arrival of Maj. Whistler, it was learned 
that the Winnebagoes were encamped a little more than a 
mile distant on the Wisconsin, where Portage City is now 
located, and were several hundred strong. The Winneba- 
goes had heard of Gen. Atkinson's approach, and of 
Dodge's pursuit, before they were known to Maj. Whist- 
ler, and in a few days a great stir was discovered among 
the Indians, and a party of thirty warriors was observed by 
the aid of a field glass, to be approaching his command. 
The Indian party bore three flags. On two— one in front 
and one in rear — were the American stars and stripes, while 



128 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the other, in the center, borne by Red Bird, was white. 
They bore no arms. When they had approached near to 
the Fox river, they stopped, and singing was heard. Those 
who were famihar with the air, and who recognized the 
bearer of the white flag, said: "It is Bed Bird singing his 
death song." AVhen they had reached the margin of the 
river, Maj. Whistler ordered Capt. Childs, who was officer 
of the guard, to take the guard to the river, and ascertain 
what the Winnebagoes wanted. They replied they had 
come to deliver up the murderers. They were received by 
the guard, and taken across the river into the presence of 
Maj. Whistler. In the lead was Car-i-mau-nee, a distin- 
guished chief. He said: 

"They are here. Like braves they have come in. Treat them as braves. Do not put 
them in irons." 

The military had been drawn up in line, the Menomonee 
and Oneida Indians in groups on the left, the band of music 
on the right. In front of the center stood Red Bird and 
his two accomplices in the Gagnier murder, while those 
who had accompanied them formed a semi-circle on the 
right and left. All eyes were fixed on Red Bird, as well 
they might be, for of all his tribe he was the most perfect in 
form, face, and gesture. In height he was about six feet; 
straight without restraint. His proportions from his head 
to his feet were those of the most exact symmetry, and even 
his fingers were models of beauty. His face was full of all 
the ennobling, and, at the same time, winning expressions; 
it appeared to be a compound of grace and dignity, of firm- 
ness and decision, all tempered with mildness and mercy. 
It was impossible to conceive that such a face concealed the 
heart of a murderer. 

It was painted, one side red, the other intermixed with 
green and white. He was clothed in a Yankton suit of 
dressed elk-skin, perfectly white, and as soft as a kid glove, 
new and beautiful. It consisted of a jacket, ornamented 
with fringe of the same material, the sleeves being cut to 
fit his finely-formed arm, and of leggings, also of dressed 
elk-skin, the fringe of which was varied and enriched with 
blue beads. On his feet he wore moccasins. On each shoul- 
der, in place of an epaulette, was fastened a preserved red 
bird. Around his neck he wore a collar of blue wampum, 
beautifully mixed with white, which was sewed on to a 
piece of cloth, whilst the claws of a panther or wild cat, 



THE LEAD MINES AND WINNEBAGO WAR. 129 

with their points inward, formed the rim of the collar. 
Around his neck were hanging strands of wampum of va- 
rious lengths, the circles enlarging as they descended. There 
was no attempt at ornamenting the hair, after the Indian 
styl3; but it was cut after the best fashion of the most civ- 
ilized. Across his breast, in a diagonal position, and bound 
tight to it, was his war pipe, at least three feet long, brightly 
ornamented with dyed horse hair, and the feathers and 
bills of birds. Other ornaments were displayed with exqui- 
site taste upon his breast and shoulders. In one of his hands 
he held the white flag, and in the other the calumet or pipe 
of peace. 

There he stood. Not a muscle moved, nor was the expres- 
sion of his face changed a particle. He appeared conscious 
that, according to the Indian law, he had done no w^rong. 
His conscience was at repose. Death had no terrors for 
him. He was there prepared to receive the blow that should 
send him to the happy hunting grounds to meet his fathers 
and brothers who had gone before him. 

All were told to sit down, when a talk followed between 
the head men of the Winnebagoes and Maj. Whistler, in 
which the former claimed much credit for bringing in the 
captives, and hoped their white brothers would accept 
horses in commutation for the lives of their friends, and 
earnestly besought that in any event they might not be put 
in irons. They were answered and told that they had done 
well thus to come in ; were advised to warn their people 
against killing ours, and were impressed with a proper 
notion of their own weakness and the extent of our power. 
They were told that the captives should not be put in irons, 
that they . should have something to eat, and tobacco to 
smoke. 

Red Bird then stood up, facing the commanding officer, 
Maj. Whistler. After a moment's pause, and a quick sur- 
vey of the troops, and with a composed observation of his 
people, he spoke, looking at Maj. Whistler, and said : 

" I am ready." Then advancing a step or two, he paused and said: "I do not wish to he 
put iu irons. Let me be free. I have given away my life— (stooping and taking some 
dust between his finger and thumb and blowing it away)— like that," (eyeing the dust as 
it fell and vanished), then adding: " I would not take it back. It is gone." 

Having thus spoken, he threw his hands behind him, in- 
dicating that he was leaving all things behind him, and 
marched briskly up to Maj. Whistler, breast to breast. A 
9 



130 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

platoon was wheeled backward from the center of the line 
when, Maj. Whistler stepping aside, the prisoners marched 
through the line in charge of a file of men, to a tent that 
had been provided for them in the rear, where a guard was 
set over them. The other Indians then left the ground by 
the way they had come, taking with them the advice they 
had received, and a supply of meat, flour, and tobacco. 

Gen. Atkinson's troops, very soon after the surrender of 
these captives, arrived at Fort Winnebago, as did also the 
volunteers in command of Col. Dodge. The Indian prison- 
€rs were delivered over to Gen. Atkinson, by whom they 
were sent to Fort Crawford. Gen. Atkinson met the grey- 
headed De-kau-ray at the Portage, who, in presence of Col. 
Dodge, disclaimed for himself and the other Winnebagoes 
any unfriendly feeling toward the United States, and disa- 
vowed any connection with the murders on the Mississippi. 
Gen. Atkinson then discharged the volunteers, assigning 
two companies of regulars to the occupation of Fort Craw- 
ford, and ordering the other regulars to their respective 
posts, while he himself returned to Jefferson Barracks. And 
thus ended the Winnebago outbreak. 

It may be thought that the results of this war are very 
meagre for the amount of force employed in it. If meas- 
ured by the amount of blood shed after the murders at 
Prairie du Chien and on the keel-boat, the criticism is very 
correct. But if it be intended to suggest that there was no 
sufficient reason for apprehending that the Winnebagoes 
contemplated a general rising against and massacre of the 
whites, the thought and suggestion are the results of great 
ignorance of the intentions of the Winnebagoes, and of the 
facts of the case. There is satisfactory evidence that the 
Pottawatamies were allied with the Winnebagoes, and that 
they were to fall upon and destroy the settlement at Chi- 
cago, and it is probable that but for the movements result- 
ing from the efforts of Gen. Cass, who was fortunately 
near the seat of war, the whole country would have been 
overrun with a general Indian outbreak. 

Red Bird died in prison at Prairie du Chien; and in Sep- 
tember, 1828, his two accomplices, We-kau and Chic-hon-sic, 
were indicted, tried, and convicted at a term of the United 
States court held by Judge Doty, as accomplices of Red 
Bird in the murder of Gagnier and Lipcap. They were 
sentenced to be hung on the 26th of December following; 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 131 

but before that day a pardon arrived from President 
Adams, dated November 3d, and the two Indians were dis- 
charged. 



CHAPTER XIL 

THE BLACK HAWK WAE. 



The termination of the Winnebago war brought a tem- 
porary restoration of peace, which revived anew the 
adventurous spirit of immigration, and brought with it a 
large intlux of miners and others to the lead mines, and 
prosperity and progress constantly attended the increasing 
settlements of the country, which received no material 
check until the occurrence of the Black Hawk war in 18o2. 

The village of Black Hawk, or, as he called himself. 
Black Sparrow Hawk, on the left bank of the Mississippi, 
near the mouth of Rock river, included the site of the pres- 
ent city of Rock Island, This Indian village was all em- 
braced within the limits of the territory ceded by the treaty 
with the Sauks and Foxes, made at St. Louis on November 3, 
1804, by Gen. William Henry Harrison. The validity 
of this treaty, which was not signed by Black Hawk, was 
denied by him, and although it was ratified and confirmed 
by another treaty made in May, 1816, to which Black 
Hawk affixed his mark, he pretended to be ignorant of 
what Ke had done, and denied that the second treaty had 
any more validity than the first. 

Previous to 1831 the white settlers were in possession of 
much of the country east of the Mississippi, around Black 
Hawk's village, and even of the village itself ; and in the 
spring of that year the chief, driven to desperation in his 
fruitless attempts to resist what he chose to consider the 
lawless encroachments of the v/hite settlers, and aggravated 
by a recent murderous attack of friendly Menomonees, 
near Prairie du Chien, crossed the Mississippi from the west 
with his own band of about three hundred warriors, usually 
called the British band, together with the women and chil- 
dren, with a purpose to regain, if possible, the possession of 
the home of his people and the burial place of his fore- 
fathers. 



132 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

He ordered the white settlers away, threw down their 
fences, unroofed their houses, cut up their grain, drove off 
and killed their cattle, and threatened the people with death 
if they remained. About the first of June six companies of 
the United States troops were, upon the application of Gov, 
Reynolds, sent from Jefferson Barracks to the scene of the 
disturbance ; and by the 10th of June fifteen hundred vol- 
unteers, on the call of the Governor, assembled at Beards- 
town, on the Illinois' river, and were duly organized under 
Gen. Joseph Duncan, of the State militia. On the 2Gth of 
June, the volunteer force having united with the regulars 
under Gen. Gaines, marched, to the Sauk village; but no 
enemy was found there. The Indians had quietly departed 
on the approach of the army, and in their canoes had crossed 
to the western side of the Mississippi, which it was not 
claimed had been embraced in the territory ceded by the 
treaties. 

The army remained encamped for several days on the site 
of the town on Rock Island, where Black Hawk and his 
chiefs and braves sued for peace, and a treaty was entered 
into on June oOth, by which the Indians agreed to remain 
forever after on the west side of the river, and never to re- 
cross it without the permission of the President or the Gov- 
ernor of the State. Gen. Gaines reported that — 

" The Sauks were as completely humbled as if they had been chastised in battle, and 
less disposed to disturb the frontier inhabitants." 

In this the General was greatly mistaken ; for scarcely a 
year elapsed before Black Hawk, with all the savage forces 
he could command, again crossed the Mississippi, when the 
real Black Hawk war ensued. 

This war, although originating on a portion of Rock river 
some distance from the settlements in the lead mines, and 
inaugurated by a tribe who laid no claim to our territory, 
justly caused great alarm to the inhabitants. The lead 
mine region was not so distant from the scene of the first 
hostile demonstrations, that it could not easily be reached; 
and the relations between the Sauks and the Winnebagoes 
were such, that serious fears were entertained that the two 
tribes would make the war a common one. 

These apprehensions induced Col. Dodge, in the month of 
May, to assemble a company of fifty volunteers, commanded 
by Captains James H. Gentry and John H. Rountree, who 
proceeded to the head of the Four Lakes, where, on the 25th 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. I33 

clay of that month Col. Gratiot, the Indian agent for the 
Winnebagoes, had induced them to meet in council. 
Col. Dodge, in his "talk" to the Indians, said: 

"My friends: Mr. Ghatiot your father, and myself, have met to have a talk with you. 
Having identified us both as your friends, in making a sale of your country to the United 
States, you will not suspect us of deceiving you. 

" The Sauks liave shed the blood of our people. The Winnebago Prophet, and, as we 
are told, one hundred of your people, have united with Black Hawk and his party. Our 
people are anxious to know in what relation you stand to us, whether as friends or 
enemies. 

" Your residence being near our settlements, it is necessary and proper that we should 
explicitly understand from you, the chiefs and warriors, whether or not you intend to aid, 
harbor, or counsel the Sauks in your counti-y. To do so will be considered as a declara- 
tion of war on your part. 

" Yoiu- great American Father is the friend of the Red Skins ; he wishes to make you 
happy. Your chiefs, who have visited Washmgton, know him well. He is mild in peace 
but terrible in war. He will ask of no people what is not right, and he will submit to 
nothing wrong. His power is great. He commands all the warriors of the American 
people. If you strike us you strike him. If you make war on us, you will have your 
country taken from you, your annuity money will be forfeited, and the lives of your people 
must be lost. We speak the words of truth. We hopa they will sink deep into your 
hearts. 

" The Sauks have killed eleven of our people and wounded three. Our people have 
killed eleven of the Sauks. It was a small detachment of our army who were engaged 
with the Sauks ; when the main body of our army appeared, they ran. 

•' The Sauks have given you bad counsel. They tell you lies, and no truth. Stop your 
ears to their words. They know death and destruction follow them, and they want you to 
unite with them, wishing to place you in the same situation with themselves. 

" W^e have told you the consequences of uniting with our enemies. We hope that the 
bright chain of friendship will still continue, that we may travel the same road in friend- 
ship under a clear sky. 

" We have always been your friends. We have said that you would be honest and true 
to your treaties. Do not let your actions deceive us. So long as you are true and faithful 
we will extend the hand of friendship to you and your children. If unfaithful to your 
treaties, you must expect to share the fate of the Sauks." 

The Winnebagoes promised to be faithful to their treaties, 
and remain at peace; but it is well known that their prom- 
ises were inspired alone by fear, while the desire for revenge 
was with them the predominant passion. 

Black Hawk, regardless of the obligations of the treaty 
into which he had entered the previous year, crossed the 
Mississippi early in the spring of 1832, with the intention of 
using all his endeavors, even unto war, to recover posses- 
sion of his village. Gov. Reynolds again called upon the 
militia of Illinois; and in a few days eighteen hundred men 
responded to the call. They were organized into four regi- 
ments and a spy battalion, under the general command of 



134 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Gen. Samuel Whiteside, of the State militia. The line of 
march was taken up from Beardstown, on the 27th of April, 
for the mouth of Rock river. Gen. Atkinson had left Jef- 
ferson Barracks on the 8th of April, and set out for the 
Upper Mississippi with the regular forces of the United 
States army; and Black Hawk, with his whole tribe of fol- 
lowers, began to move up Rock river. Gen. Whiteside, in 
pursuance of arrangements with Gen. Atkinson, moved up 
Rock river to the Prophet's town; and finding that Black 
Hawk was still in advance, they burned the Prophet's vil- 
lage, and moved on about forty miles to Dixon's ferry, 
where a halt was made to await the arrival of Gen. Atkin- 
son with the regular forces. At Dixon were found two bat- 
talions of mounted volunteers, consisting of about three 
hundred men, under command of Majors Stillman and 
Bailey. 

Major Stillman, with his force, was ordered up Rock 
river to spy out the Indians. He began his march on the 
12th of May; and, about the middle of the afternoon of the 
' 14th, the battalion halted for the purpose of encamping for 
the night. It has been said, and it is probably true, that 
many of the men were intoxicated, and the pursuit was 
generally regarded as a big frolic. Nearly all the horses 
had been picketed out, turned loose or otherwise disposed of. 
The men were lazily engaged about camp, some gathering 
wood, some pitching tents, and others drinking whisky, with 
which they were abundantly supplied. But suddenly a 
great commotion arose. The Indians raised the war-whoop, 
and appeared on the open prairie a short distance in 
advance. Then the rush began, and a strife ensued as to 
who should first mount and give chase. Pell-mell was the 
order of the march, which continued for two or three miles. 
Two of the Indians were overtaken on the prairie, and 
killed. 

At length the rear of the army reached the Sycamore 
Creek, where they met the van, in full retreat in the same 
disgraceful disorder, with the whole body of Indians in hot 
pursuit. The valiant men, who a few minutes before were 
so anxious to pursue the enemy, were now more anxious 
to escape; and they continued their retreat until they 
reached Dixon. In this confusion Capt, Adams, with the 
company from Peoria, succeeded in crossing the creek, 
and took a position between the Indians and the fugitives. 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. I35 

This position they held for some time against the whole 
force of the enemy, and no doubt saved the lives of many; 
but at the cost of the life of Capt. Adams and several of his 
men. The total casualties in this first and most digraceful 
encounter with the Indians were eleven of Stillman's bat- 
talion killed and three wounded, while only three Indians 
were known to have been killed. This was the first blood 
shed in the Black Hawk war. The next day General 
Whiteside, and the volunteers under his command, marched 
for the scene of the disaster; but the Indians had scattered, 
and could not be found. The volunteer army buried the 
dead, and returned to Dixon, where General Atkinson ar- 
rived the following day with the regular forces and supplies 
of provisions, of which the volunteers stood in much need. 

Colonel Dodge, wlio, by a common intuitive feeling, was 
regarded as the leader of the people of the lead mines, and 
commander of all their military forces, as he was also the 
lawful commander of the militia of that part of Michigan 
Territory, on the 8th of May addressed a letter from Mineral 
Point to Governor Reynolds, asking for information in 
relation to the movements of the Illinois forces, expressing 
fears of a union of the Sauks and Winnebagoes, and re- 
questing that a part of the Illinois forces might be sent 
across Rock river toco-operate with a mounted force to 
be brought into the field from the lead mines. This 
letter was sent by a special embassy, consisting of Judge 
Gentry, Col. Moore and James P. Cox. 

At the same time. Col. Dodge, with twenty-seven of his 
neighbors, who were well mounted, among whom was his 
son Augustus C, started on an expedition to Rock river to 
ascertain the position and probable movements of Black 
Hawk and his followers. The small party proceeded by 
way of Apple rive-r to Buffalo Grove, where an Indian trail 
was discovered, and followed to a point nearly opposite the 
Kishwaukee, and within a few miles of the ground from 
which Maj. Stillman was on the same day disastrously 
beaten, and put to flight. After Stillman's defeat Governor 
Reynolds sent an express at night to Col. Dodge, informing 
him of the facts, and that his country in the Territory was 
in imminent danger from the attack of the Indians. Col. 
Dodge immediately returned home, having been absent 
about a week, reported the results, and advised the inhabi- 



136 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

tants to protect themselves by forts and other precautions, 
and to organize immediately for defense. 

The inhabitants of the lead mines were now thoroughly 
alarmed by constant dread of attack from Black Hawk 
and his warriors, who had small parties scattered all over 
the country, between the Rock, Mississippi and Wisconsin 
rivers, which " occupied every grove, waylaid every road, 
and hung around every little settlement," and induced the 
most serious fears in the minds of all the inhabitants of the 
mining region. The bravest hearts thought it no evidence 
of cowardice to use every precaution against surprise and 
sudden attack. Forts, block-houses and stockades were 
erected by the people at numerous places, for the protection 
and defense of themselves and their families, and into 
which they removed. Among these were Fort Union, the 
headquarters of Col. Dodge, near Dodgeville; Fort Defiance, 
at the farm of D. M. Parkinson; Fort Hamilton, at Wiota; 
Fort Jackson, at Mineral Point; Mound Fort, at Blue Mound; 
and others at Wingville, Cassville, Platteville, Gratiot's 
Grove, Diamond Grove, Elk Grove, White Oak Springs, and 
Old ShuUsburg, besides many others. 

It was soon ascertained that the mode of warfare adopted 
by the Sauks, was to keep the main body concealed in 
strongholds, and avoid a conflict with a superior force, 
while small detached parties should attack the undefended 
settlements, and any stragglers who could be found away 
from the protection of the forts and block-houses. 

It is difficult to state definitely the number or names of 
the numerous persons whose lives were sacrificed to the 
ferocity of the savages. 

On the 21st of May, about seventy Indians attacked a 
party of whites assembled in the house of Mr. Davis on 
Indian Creek, near Ottawa, and killed and scalped fifteen 
whites, and took two young woinen named Hall prisoners, 
who were afterwards surrendered at the Blue Mounds 
through the agency of a party of Winnebagoes who were 
inspired by a large reward of $2,000, offered by General 
Atkinson, for their restoration. 

These female captives were brought to the Mound Fort 
on the 3rd of June. Col. Dodge, who had returned home 
only a day or two before, from his " talk " with the Indians 
on the 25th of May, had been sent for on the 1st of June, on 
account of an apprehended attack by the Indians. He im- 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. I37 

mediately collected about two hundred mounted men, and 
was fortunately present with this force when the young 
women were brought in by the Winnebagoes, of whom 
there were about fif ty». including such distinguished chiefs 
and braves as White Crow — a famous orator — Spotted 
Arm, Little Thunder, Little Priest and others. Colonel 
Dodge purchased and furnished them a large beef stew, 
upon which they feasted sumptuously, furnished them 
with comfortable quarters in miner's cabins, and in all suit- 
able ways sought to impress on these Winnebagoes that the 
whites had no other than friendly feelings towards them, 
and to inspire, if possible, a reciprocal feeling on their part. 
Their friendship for the Sauks and Foxes was well known, 
and suspicions and apprehensions of an alliance offensive 
and defensive between the two tribes had long been gener- 
ally entertained, which were by no means allayed by their 
promises of fidelity, friendship and peace made to Colonel 
Dodge at the talk held only a few days before. 

When Col. Dodge retired for the night, no appearance of 
danger or disaffection could be discovered. But during the 
night he was awakened, and informed that the Indians had 
left the quarters assigned them, and gone into the bush; 
that White Crow, the orator, had been endeavoring to stir 
up the other Indians to hostility; that they were sulky, 
moody and stealthy in their conversation and movements; 
that they had been grinding their knives, tomahawks and 
spears, and that two athletic young warriors had gone 
stealthily in the direction of the Four Lakes, where the 
main body of the Winnebagoes was encamped. 

Col. Dodge, taking the officer of the guard, with six men 
and an interpreter, marched to the " bush " where the In- 
dians were encamped, and took White Crow and five others 
of the chiefs and braves, and marched them off without 
ceremony, to a cabin near by, and ordered them to lie down 
there, and remain there until morning; and then laid down 
with them, at the same time directing the officer of the 
guard to place a strong party around the cabin, and a double 
guard around the whole encampment, which required nearly 
all the men in the command. 

The next day, these captive chiefs and a number of young 
w^arriors were marched, much against their will, to Mor- 
rison's Grove, fifteen miles west of the Blue Mounds; Col. 
Gratiot, the Indian Agent, was sent for at Gratiot's Grove, 



138 HISTORY CF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

and on his arrival the next day, another council was held. 
Col. Dodge told the Indians, frankly and plainly, what 
were his suspicions and apprehensions in relation to their 
treacherous intentions. They stoutly denied any such de- 
sign; but failed to satisfy Col. Dodge, who retained as host- 
ages for the good faith of the Indians, three of their leading 
chiefs— Whirling Thunder, the principal war chief, Spotted 
^Arm and Little Priest. These were conveyed to Gratiot's 
Grove the next day, and all the other Indians were dis- 
charged, and the Hall girls were received and restored to 
their friends. The three hostages were kept in prison until 
Posey, Henry and Alexander arrived with their command, 
when they were set at liberty. 

The detachment of volunteers returned with Col. Dodge 
to Fort Union (Dodge's residence), and on the 5th of June 
proceeded to Gratiot's Grove, where they were joined the 
next day by Capt. Stephenson's company of volunteers from 
Galena. 

On the 22d of May the body of one Durley was found, 
murdered and scalped, near Buffalo Grove, and on the next 
day an Indian agent named St. Vrain, together with John 
Fowler, William Hale, and Aaron Hawley, met the 
same fate near the same place. 

The object of this assemblage of the volunteers at Gratiot's 
Grove, was to find and punish the Indians who had been en- 
gaged in the perpetration of these murders and to protect 
the country from the hostilities of the Sauks, in whatever 
manner they might be directed by the Commandant-in- 
Chief. 

Henry Dodge was one of the early pioneers of the lead 
region, to which he had removed in 1826, from Missouri, 
where he had held the office of United States marshal, and 
was highly esteemed as a worthy, brave and patriotic citi- 
zen. He brought with him a large family of sons and 
daughters, and was largely engaged in the business of 
mining and smelting lead, to which his personal efforts were 
industriously devoted. He was assigned to the command 
of all the Wisconsin volunteers, • as well as those from 
Galena. He was under the command of Gen. Atkinson, to 
whom it was his purpose to report in person at Rock river, 
with the volunteer forces now under his command. 

On the 7th of June Col. Dodge, with his volunteers, 
marched to Kirker's farm, at the head of Apple river. 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR, I39 

where they camped, and Col. Dodge addressed them as fol- 
lows : 

" Volunteers : We have met to take the field. The tomahawk and scalping knife are 
drawn over the heads of the weak and defenseless inhabitants of our country. Let us 
unite, my bretliren, in arms; let harmony, union and concert exist; be vigilant, silent and 
cool. Discipline and obedience to orders will make small bodies of men formidable and 
invincible; without order and subordination the largest bodies of armed men are no bet- 
ter than armed mobs. Although we have entire confidence in the Government of our 
choice, knowing, as we all do, that ours is a government of the people, where the equal 
rights of all are protected, and that the power of our countrymen can crush this savage 
foe; yet it will take time for the Government to direct a force sufficient to give security 
and peace to the frontier people. 

" I have, as well as yourselves, entire confidence, both in the President of the United 
States, and the distinguished individual at the head of the War Department; that our In- 
dian relations are better luiderstood by those distinguished men, Jackson and Cass, than 
by any two citizens who could be selected to fill their stations. They have often ipet our 
savage enemies on the field of battle, where they have conquered them, and have often 
also met them in council. They understand well all the artifice, cunning, and stratagems 
for which our enemies are distinguished; they well know our wants and will apply the 
remedy. In Gen. Atkinson, in whose protection this frontier is placed, I have the most 
entire confidence. He is ^ell advised of our situation. You will recollect the responsi- 
bility he assumed for the people of this country in 1827, by ascending the Wisconsin with 
six hundred infantry, and one hundred and fifty mounted men, to demand the murderers 
of our people. Many of us had the honor of serving under him on that occasion. He has 
my entire confidence both, as a man of talents in his profession, and as a soldier and a 
gentleman. If our Government will let him retain his command, he will give us a lasting 
peace, that will insure us tranquillity for years. He knows the resoiuces as well as the 
character of the Indians we have to contend with, and if the Government furnishes him 
the means, our troubles will be of shoi-t duration. 

" What, my fellow-soldiers, is the character of the foes we have to contend with? They 
are a faithless banditi of savages, who have violated all treaties. They have left the 
country and the nation of which they form a part. The policy of these marauders and 
robbers of our people appears to be, to enlist the disaffected and restless of other nations, 
which will give them strength and resources, to murder our people and bum their prop- 
erty. They are the enemies of all people, both the whites and Indians. Their thirst for 
blood is not to be satisfied. They are willing to bring ruin and destruction on other In- 
dians, in order to glut their vengeance on us. The humane policy of the Government will 
not apply to these deluded people. Like the pirates of the sea, their hand is against every 
man, and the hand of every man should.be against them. Faithless to the Government in 
everything, it will surely be the policy of the Government to let them receive that kind of 
chastisement which will quiet them effectually, and make a lasting example for others. 
The future growth and prosperity of our country is to be decided for years by the policy 
that is now to be pursued by the Government in relation to the Indians. Our existence as 
a people is at stake, and great as the resources of our country are, the security of the hvea 
of our people depends on our vigilance, caution, and bravery. The assistance of our Gov- 
ernment may be too late for us; let us not then await the aiTival of the enemy at our 
doors, but advance upon them, fight them, watch them, and hold them in check. Let us 
avoid surprise and ambuscades. Let every volunteer he with his arms in his hands, so 
that when he rises to his feet the line of battle will be formed. If attacked in the night, 



140 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

we will charge the enemy at a quick pace and even front. The eyes of the people are 
upon us; let us endeavor, by our actions, to retain the confidence and support of our 
countrymen.''' 

The command marched to the scene of the murder of St. 
Vrain, Fowler, Hale, and Hawley, near Buffalo Grove 
(which is near Polo Station, on the Illinois Central railroad), 
where they found and buried the bodies of the three former; 
the body of Hawley was never recovered. At this point 
Capt. Stephenson separated from the command, and re- 
turned to Galena, with his company. Col. Dodge proceeded 
with the remainder of the mounted volunteers to the camp 
of the regular troops, at Dixon's Ferry. Gen. Hugh Brady 
was in command here. Gen. Atkinson's headquarters hav- 
ing been removed to the rapids of the Illinois river (now 
Ottawa), where he was engaged in organizing three brig- 
ades of Illinois volunteers. Col. Dodge, with twenty-five of 
his mounted volunteers, escorted Gen. Brady to Gen. At- 
kinson's headquarters, where, on the 11th of June, the plan 
of the campaign was agreed upon, and Col. Dodge re- 
ceived his orders. The whole command of volunteers then 
returned to Gratiot's Grove, where, on the 14th of June, 
they were remanded to their respective posts, to hold them- 
selves in readiness for such further services as might be re- 
quired of them. On the same day Col. Dodge returned to 
his headquarters at Fort Union, having first comrnunicated 
to the Winnebago chiefs. Whirling Thunder, Spotted 
Arm, and Little Priest, held as hostages, a " talk" sent to 
them by Gen. Atkinson. 

On the 2Gth of May, Gen. Atkinson sent, as an express. 
Col, Wm. S. Hamilton, from Dixon's to Gen. Street, Indian 
Agent at Prairie du Chien, requesting the latter to send 
forward as many Sioux and Menomonee Indians as could 
be called within striking distance of Prairie du Chien, to be 
employed, in conjunction with the troops, against the Sauks 
and Foxes. A similar message was sent to Col. Boyd, the 
Indian Agent at Green Bay. Col. Street sent Thos. P. 
Burnett, who was then sub-Indian Agent, up the river, to 
recruit the Sioux, and whatever Winnebagoes were willing 
to join them. There were no Menomonees in that quarter. 
Mr. Burnett, taking John Marsh with him, went up the 
river about one hundred and thirty miles; and returned, 
before the ]Oth of June, with one hundred Indian warriors, of 
which eighty were Sioux, and twenty Winnebagoes, and 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 141 

fifty or sixty more were expected to join them. The Indians 
were placed under command of Col. Hamilton, who, taking 
Mr. Marsh and an interpreter with him, proceeded to join 
the troops under Gen. Atkinson. 

Col. Boyd employed Col. S. C. Stambaugh, who had re- 
cently been the Indian Agent, to recruit the Menomonee 
Indians, who secured the services of Col. Ebenezer Childs, 
to collect them. Over three hundred were obtained for the 
service, who were divided into two companies; one com- 
manded by Charles L. Grignon, the other by George 
Johnson, and both under command of Col. Stambaugh. 
These Indian allies proceeded to join the pursuing troops. 
At Blue Mounds they learned that Black Hawk with the 
main body of his followers had crossed the Wisconsin, and 
that Col. Dodge and his command were in pursuit. They, 
therefore, went directly to Prairie du Chien. Before reach- 
ing there, they learned that a part of the Sauks and Foxes 
liad gone south. They found the trail, and pursued with 
one company, and overtook the fugitives about fifteen miles 
north of Cassville, not far back from the Mississippi. There 
were only two men and a boy, three or four women, and as 
many children. The Menomonees killed the two men, and 
the others were taken prisoners. 

On the Gth of June James Aubrey was killed at the Blue 
Mounds, and two weeks later Force and Green lost their 
lives by the enemy at the same place. It is probable that 
Aubrey was murdered by the Winnebagoes, as there is no 
reason to suppose the Sauks and Foxes had been so near the 
Blue Mounds as early as the time of his death, and the 
murder of Force and Green was more likely the work of 
the Winnebagoes than of the Sauks and Foxes. 

On the 14th of June, five men whose names were Spaf- 
FORD, Spencer, McIlwain, Million and an Englisman 
called John Bull, were at work in a cornfield owned by 
Spafford, situated on the Peckatonica near Spaff ord's Ford, 
in what is now the town of Wayne, when they were sur- 
prised by a band of Indians, and all except Million, who 
most miraculously escaped, were murdered. The Indians 
stealthily pursued their way to a place of concealment 
within four hundred yards of Fort Hamilton, at which place 
Capt. Gentry's command of mounted men had by order of 
Col. Dodge, rendezvoused for the purpose of pursuing and 
killing them. On the morning of the IGth, at about eight 



142 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

o'clock, as Col. Dodge was approaching the fort to take 
command of the troops, he heard three guns fired, which 
proved to be from the hostile Indians, who were lying in 
ambush, and who killed, in his saddle, a German named 
Apple, who was preparing to join in the pursuit, and whom 
they butchered and scalped. Col, Dodge immediately or- 
dered the mounted men under arms in pursuit of the savage 
foe. Fortunately they were enabled soon to come upon the 
Indian trail, and after running their horses about two miles 
they came in sight of the retreating enemy, who were seek- 
ing the low ground where it was difficult to pursue them on 
horseback. The Indians directed their course to a bend in 
the Peckatonica covered with a deep swamp, which they 
reached before their pursuers crossed the stream. 

The following account of the action which for daring 
bravery and cool, undaunted courage, is not excelled in the 
history of Indian warfare, is from the official report of 
General Dodge to General Atkinson: 

"After crossing the Peckatonica, ia the open ground, I dismounted my command, 
linked my horses and left four men in charge of them, and sent four men in different 
directions to watch the movement of the Indians. I formed my men on foot at open 
order, and at trailed arms, and we proceeded through the swamp to some timber and 
imder-growth where I expected to find the enemy. When I found their trail, I knew 
they were close at hand. They had got close to the edge of the lake, where the bank 
was six feet high, which was a complete breast- work for them, They commenced the 
fii'e, when three of my men fell, two dangerously wounded, one severely but not dan- 
gerously. I instantly ordered a charge made on them by eighteen men, which was 
promptly obeyed. The Indians being under the bank, our guns were brought within 
ten or fifteen feet of them before we could fire on them. Their party consisted of 
thirteen men. Eleven were killed on the spot, and the remaining two were killed in 
crossing the lake, so they were left without one to carry the news to their friends. The 
volunteers under my command behaved with great gallantry. It would be impossible for 
me to discriminate among them. At the word ' charge,' the men rushed forward, and 
literally shot the Indians to pieces. We were, Indians and whites, on a piece of groimd 
not to exceed sixty feet square." 

The precise spot on which this terrific battle occurred is 
section eleven, town two, range five east, in the town of 
Wiota. 

The follo^ving, as near as can now be ascertained, is a 
complete list of the names of the persons, who in one way 
or another, as duty was assigned them, took part in the 
battle of the Peckatonica: 

Col. Henry Dodge commanding; Captain James H. Gen- 
try; Lieutenants— Charles Bracken, Pascal Bequette and 
Porter; Surgeon Allen Hill — doing duty as a private. 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. IJ.3 

Privates— (alphabetically arranged)— Ed. Bouchard, Sam- 
uel Black, Wm. Carns, Deva, Asa Duncan, Matthew 

G. Fitch, Alexander Higgenbothem, John Hood, Thomas 
Jenkins, R. H. Kirkpatrick, Benjamin Lawhead, Levin 

Leach, Dominick McGraw, McConnell, John Messer- 

SERSMITH, Jr., Morris, D. M. Parkinson, Peter Parkin- 
son, Jr., Samuel Patrick, Thomas H. Price, Rankin, 

Townsend, Van Wagner, Wells, and 

WooDBRiDGE. Of these Black, Morris and Wells were 
killed, and Jenkins wounded, while the others escaped with- 
out injury. 

Col. Hamilton arrived with the friendly Sioux Indians 
about an hour after the battle; and some Winnebagoes who 
professed to be friendly came with them, among whom was 
the chief De-Kau-ray. The friendly Indians went to the 
ground where the Sauks were killed. They scalped them,- 
and literally cut them to pieces, and appeared to be de- 
lighted with the scalps. 

On the 18th of June, while a company under the com- 
mand of Capt. Stephenson were engaged in scouting, three 
of his men were killed and himself wounded by Indians 
near the Peckatonica, among whom Black Hawk was said 
to have been present. 

On the 24tli of the month, Black Hawk, with a large body 
of Indians, made an attack on Apple river Fort, near the 
present village' of Elizabeth, which was vigorously de- 
fended. The battle lasted fifteen hours. The loss of the In- 
dians was considerable ; that of the whites one man killed, 
and one wounded. 

In the "Life of Black Haivk," dictated by himself, and ed- 
ited by J. B. Patterson, of Rock Island, and undoubtedly 
authentic. Black Hawk gives the following account of his 
attack on this garrison : 

"When we arrived in the vicinity of the Fort, we saw four men on horseback ; one of 
my braves fired and wounded a man, when the others set up a yell as if a large force was 
ready to come against us. We concealed ourselves. No enemy came. Tlie four men ran 
to the Fort and gave the alarm. We followed them and attacked the Fort, and killed one 
man who raised his head above the picketing to fire at us. Finding that these people 
could not all be killed without setting fire to their houses and Fort, I thought it more pru- 
dent to be content with what flour, provisions, cattle and horses we could find, than to set 
lire to their buildings, as the light would be seen at a distance, and the army might sup- 
pose we were in the neighborhood, and come upon us with a force too strong. Accordingly 
we opened a house and filled our bags with flour and provisions, took several Lories 
and drove off some of their cattle." 



144 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Black Hawk in this marauding raid was accompanied by 
about two hundred of his warriors. The next day on their 
return to Rock river, the savages met Maj. John Dement in 
command of a spy battalion, near Kellogg's Grove. A 
severe contest ensued, in which five whites were killed, and 
three wounded, while nine Indians were left dead on the 
field, and five others carried away. 

Black Hawk in his "Life'' gives the following account of 
this engagement : 

"We started in a direction toward 'sun-rise.' After marcliing a considerable time, I 
discovered some wliite men coming toward us; we concealed ourselves in the woods, and 
when they came near enough, we commenced yelling and firing and made a rush upon 
them. About this time, their chief, with a party of men, rushed up to rescue the men we 
had fired upon. In a little while they commenced retreating and left their chief and a few 
braves, who seemed willing and anxious to fight. They acted like braves ; but were forced 
to give way, when I rushed upon them with my braves. In a short time the chief returned 
with a large party. He seemed determined to fight and anxious for a battle. When he 
came near enough, I raised a yell, and firing commenced from both sides. The chief (who 
seemed to be a small man) addressed his warriors in a loud voice; but they soon retreated 
leaving him and a few braves on the battle field. A great number of my warriors pur- 
sued the retreating party, and killed a nmnber of their horses as they ran. The chief and 
his few braves were unwilling to leave the field. I ordered my braves to rush upon them, 
and had the mortification of seeing two of my chiefs killed before the enemy retreated. 
This young chief deserves great praise for his courage and bravery; but fortunately for 
us, his army was not all composed of such brave men. During this attack we kUled sev- 
eral men and about forty horses, and lost two young chiefs and seven warriors." 

On the 29th of June, three men were attacked in a field 
near Sinsinawa Mound, two of whom, John Thompson and 
James Boxley, were killed, while the Indians, though pur- 
sued by Captain Stephenson, made their escape by crossing 
the Mississippi in a canoe. The Indians were probably a 
straggling party of Sauks, as the principal body had already 
returned with Black Hawk to Rock river. 

During the months of May and June the number of set- 
tlers who fell victims to the merciless warfare of Black 
Hawk and his followers, was probably not less than fifty. 
But by the early part of July, such was the organization 
and vigorous pursuit by the whites of all straggling bands of 
marauders, that the great mass of the Indians were concen- 
trated upon Rock river, above Lake Koshkonong, where 
General Atkinson was now encamped, and where he had 
been joined by General Alexander's brigade. 

While Maj. Dement was engaged with Black Hawk at 
Kellogg's Grove, he sent an express to Gen. Posey, at Dixon, 
for relief, who marched with his whole brigade for that pur- 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 145 

pose; bat did not arrive until after the retreat of the In- 
dians. Gen. Posey awaited the arrival of his baggage 
wagons, and then proceeded with his brigade to Fort Ham- 
ilton, where he was met by Col. Dodge with his entire com- 
mand of mounted volunteers. In pursuance of the plan of 
tlie campaign, as formed at headquarters at Ottawa, on the 
17th of June, these two commands composed the left wing 
of the army. Gen. Alexander s command formed the cen- 
ter, and Gen. Atkinsox, with Gen. Henry's brigade, formed 
the right wing, and advanced up Rock river. 

The left wing marched across the country by the way of 
the Peckatonica battle ground and Sugar river, to the first 
of the Four Lakes, being re-enforced at Sugar river by the 
Galena company of volunteers. At the First Lake they 
were joined by AVhite Crow and about thirty Winnebago 
warriors, who avowed their purpose of showing the patli of 
the Sauks to the pursuing army. 

Some dissatisfaction existing between Col. Dodge's com- 
mand and Gen. Posey's brigade, a change of position was 
made, whereby Gen. Alexander's command was associated 
with Col. Dodge's, while Posey's brigade took the place of 
Alexander's. 

The left wing as reorganized then moved up the right 
bank of Rock river, accompanied by their volunteer guides, 
the Winnebagoes. Having marched two days, until Rock 
river was reached a short distance above the mouth of Bark 
river, they retraced their steps in consequence of an express 
from Gen. Atkinson, and crossed Rock river below the 
mouth of Bark river, where is the present village of Fort 
Atkinson. Here they met Gen. Atkinson. 

At this time, and at Gen. Atkinson's encampment, Capt. 
Charles Dunn, subsequently appointed Chief Justice, on 
the organization of the Territory of Wisconsin four years 
later, while acting as officer of the day, and going around 
to relieve the guard, was accidentally shot by one of the 
sentinels, and dangerously wounded. He was so disabled 
as to be compelled to return home, and was conveyed to 
Dixon by an escort. 

It appeared subsequently, by discovery of the trail and 
other evidences, that a considerable ambush had been formed 
on the east bank of Rock river, at a point where the left 
wing would have been obliged to cross the stream, AVhite 
Crow had been anxious that Col. Dodge and Gen, Alexan- 

10 



l-iG HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

DER should continue their march up the river, where they 
had been recalled by Gen. Atkinson; and it was supposed 
that this treacherous Indian was acting in concert with 
Black Hawk, and was guiding the army to this point. This 
suspicion was strengthened by his conduct at the Blue 
Mounds at the time of the surrender of the Hall girls. 

The Indians, in the meantime, finding themsels^es closely 
pressed by the advancing troops, had pushed up ths river, 
evidently more anxious to escape their pursuers than to 
make war upon them. 

General Atkinson being short of provisions, now dis- 
patched Dodge's command of about two hundred and fifty 
men, together with Henry's and Alexander's brigades, to 
Fort Winnebago for supplies, and General Posey's brigade 
was ordered to the Mining Region for the protection of the 
forts and settlements in that quarter. 

The detachment arrived at the Fort on the second day 
without casualty, and secured the requisite supplies. Col- 
onel Dodge, finding a large number of Winnebagoes at the 
Fort, and the faithful Pauquette the interpreter, with whom, 
he was well acquainted, and in whom he had the utmost 
confidence, at once set to work to find out from them the 
position of the Sauks and Foxes. He soon learned that they 
were encamped at the Rapids of Rock river, since known 
as Hustisford. To return by this route would require a di- 
vergence to the east of more than thirty miles from the 
route by which they had come. A council of the officers 
was held. General Alexander objected that the diverg- 
ence would be a violation of General Atkinson's orders, 
which required the detachment to return immediately. Col- 
onel Dodge insisted that as there was no route specified in 
the orders, they might return by any route they should deem 
proper. General Henry concurred in this opinion, and he 
and Colonel Dodge agreed to return by way of the Rapids, 
while General Alexander was to return with the supplies, 
by the route they had all come. 

The worn down horses were sent home, and the forces 
thereby reduced, so that the effective men which went to 
the Rapids were about seven hundred, accompanied by Pau- 
quette and twelve Winnebagoes as guides. The command 
reached its objective point on Rock river the third day; but 
no indications of the Indians of whom they were in pursuit 
were found, except some trails that appeared to be several 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 147 

days old. An express was immediately started to go to 
General Atkinson, which, after proceeding a few miles 
down the river, found a fresh trail, evidently bearing 
towards the Wisconsin river, and immediately returned and 
reported their discovery. Early the next morning the pur- 
suit of the Sauks and Foxes was commenced on this trail; 
the express was again sent to General Atkinson, but this 
time it did not return. The pursuit was rapid and perse- 
vering until it reached the Catfish, near its entrance into 
the Third Lake, where the force encamped the second night 
from Rock river. Many Indians were now discovered by 
tlie scouts, and the main body of them were on the penin- 
sula between the Third and Fourth Lake, at the time their 
pursuers were encamped on the Catfish. 

In the morning of the 21st, the pursuit was continued over 
the ground where the city of Madison is now located, with 
occasional glimpses of straggling Indians — one of whom 
was shot near the present Capitol, and left dead — until 
about five o'clock in the afternoon of that day, when the 
bluffs of the Wisconsin were reached/together with Black 
Hawk and his retreating band, preparing to cross the river 
with their women and children. 

When the army arrived, the Sauks and Foxes were in the 
low grounds which skirt the river. The immediate com- 
mands of Col. Dodge and Col. William L. D. Ewing were in 
advance of the main army, and on their arrival at the bluffs 
they were met by Capt. Dixon's spy company, which had 
preceded them, with information tliat the Indians were in 
sight. These two commands having dismounted, formed 
the line and advanced to the edge of the bluffs, where they 
were met by the Indians, who were in pursuit of the spy 
company. The battle began, and the Sauks and Foxes were 
repulsed. The position of the advanced commands was 
maintained under a heavy fire for about an hour, when Col. 
Henry's brigade arrived, which, deploying to the right and 
left, formed the line of battle, leaving Col. Dodge's com- 
mand in the center. A general charge was now made upon 
the Indians, in which many of them were killed, and the 
balance driven into the bottoms of the Wisconsin, where the 
tall grass was reached, which was wet, and concealed the 
Indians, and it being nearly dark, the pursuit was continued 
no further. 

The battle began about five o'clock in the afternoon, and 



148 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

about sundown the firing on both sides had mainly ceased. 
The American loss was one killed and eight wounded. The 
loss of the Indians was sixty-eight killed in the battle, and 
a great many were afterward found dead, on the north side 
of tlie AVisconsin river, on the route to the Bad Axe. The 
number of wounded is unknown. This engagement has 
ever since been known as the Battle of the Wisconsin 
Heights. 

The morning of the morrow disclosed that the Indians 
had all crossed the Wisconsin river, and disappeared. The 
army marched to the Blue Mounds, where Col. Dodge's 
command, being all near their homes, with worn out horses, 
were temporarily dismissed to their respective posts, until 
again called to active duty. 

Expresses were sent to Gen. Atkinson and to Prairie du 
Chien, and it was a few days before the army could again 
be brought together to continue the pursuit. Gen. Atkin- 
son with his army marched by way of the Blue Mounds to 
Helena. Here the volunteers under Col. Dodge were again 
assembled, and the whole army crossed the Wisconsin, and 
soon discovered the trail of the retreating Indians. On the 
2d of August — the twelfth day after the battle of the Wis- 
consin Heights — the army came up with the entire body of 
the Indians, near the mouth of the Bad Axe, about forty 
miles above Prairie du Chien. A steamboat, the Warrior, 
had also been sent up the river, armed with a six-pounder, 
to prevent their escape across the Mississippi. Thus sur- 
rounded, the Indians fell easy victims, and the battle soon 
terminated in the total destruction of a very large portion 
of Black Hawk's followers, men, women, and children, and 
the capture and dispersion of the remainder. 

Gen. Atkinson's official report states the loss of the regu- 
lars at five killed and four wounded: of the Illinois volun- 
teers at nine killed and wounded, and in Henry's brigade 
seven killed and wounded; and this, the final engagement 
of the Black Hawk war, is known as the battle of the Bad 
Axe. 

Most of the Sauks and Foxes who got safely across the 
Mississippi, including women and children, were pursued 
and killed by their implacable enemies, the Sioux. For th© 
proud and haughty Black Sparrow Hawk, as he called 
himself, it was too degrading and humiliating to submit as 
a prisoner, therefore instant flight became his last and only 



THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 1^9 

alternative. He liastil}^ retreated to a neighboring height, 
accompanied by his faithful adjunct, the Prophet; and giv- 
ing vent to a loud yell of revenge, he hastily fled to seek a 
temporary refuge among his pseudo friends, the Winne- 
bagoes, in the valley of the Lemonweir — over the bluffs and 
cliffs of which he had in former days roamed in security 
and hunted with success. 

A large reward had been offered for the capture of Black 
Haw^k, and he found now, when he most needed their 
friendship, that the Winnebagoes were in no way disposed 
to sympathize with him in his adversity. The fugitives 
pursued their lonely retreat to the Dalles of the Wisconsin 
river, and were there captured about two miles above Kil- 
bourn City, by Cha-e-tar and the One-Eyed De-cor-ra, 
who afterwards brought them to Prairie du Chien, on the 
37th of August, and delivered them as prisoners to General 
Street, The Indian Agent. 

In addition to the regular forces under General Atkinson, 
General Scott with nine companies of artillery was ordered 
from the seaboard to the scene of hostilities. These troops 
left Fortress Monroe on the 30th of June, and arrived at 
Fort Dearborn on the 8tli of July. But the conflict was 
over before they reached the scene of action. They, how- 
ever, encountered a more fatal foe. The Asiatic cholera, 
which for the first time visited America, coming by way of 
Montreal, seized the troops at Detroit on their way to Chi- 
cago. The camp became a hospital, and more than four 
hundred of these soldiers fell victims of this terrible pesti- 
lence. 

The loss on the part of the Americans in the Black Hawk 
war, independent of the ravages of the cholera, and the 
murders of the settlers, is believed to have been about fifty. 
The loss of the Sauks was not less than two hundred and 
thirty killed in battle, and probably a greater number who 
died of their wounds, and of disease and starvation; while 
the deaths of the women and children who accompanied 
the warriors, in the battles, and from their wounds, and by 
disease, starvation and drowning, cannot be approximately 
estimated. 

The companies of volunteers under the immediate com< 
mand of Colonel Dodge, at the battle of the Wisconsin 
Heights, were Captain Stephenson's, from Galena; Captain 
Clarke's, from White Oak Springs; Captain Gentry's, from 



150 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Mineral Point; Captain Parkinson's, from Fort Defiance; 
Captain Jones', from Blue River; and Captain Dickson's, 
from Platteville. Lieutenant Charles Bracken was Adju- 
tant to the battalion and aid to Colonel Dodge. 
Black Hawk knew and feared Colonel Dodge, and said: 

"K it had not been for that chief, Dodge, 'the hairy face,' I could easily have whipped 
the whites ; I could have gone anywhere my people pleased in the niiaing country." 

Black Hawk was sent as a prisoner from Prairie du 
Chien to Jefferson Barracks, under charge of Lieut. Jeffer- 
son Davis — then in the United States Army at Prairie du 
Chien, and thirty years later. President of the Confederate 
States. Black Hawk was kept a close prisoner until April, 
1833, when he was taken to Washington, together with some 
of his family, and the Prophet. After an interview with 
President Jackson, and being emphatically told by him 
that the Government would compel the red men to be at 
peace, they were sent as prisoners to Fortress Monroe, for 
"levying war," as Davis was, thirty-two years later, for the 
same offense. On June 4th, 1833, by order of the President, 
Black Hawk and his fellow prisoners were liberated and 
sent home under officers appointed to conduct them through 
the principal cities of the Union, in order to impress them 
with a proper sense of the power of the whites, and of the 
hopelessness of any conflict, on the part of the Indians, 
with the Government of the United States. Black Haw^k 
ever after remained quiet. He died October 3, 1838, and 
was buried on the banks of the Mississippi, in the State of 
Iowa, near the head of the Des Moines Rapids, where the 
village of Montrose is located. 

This was the last of Indian wars upon the soil of the pres- 
ent Stata of WJscoi^sin. 



,^- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT— 1512 TO 1834. 151 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CIVIL GOVERNMENT— 1512 TO 1834. 

The domain which constitutes the State of Wisconsin has 
been successively claimed as within the dominion of Spain, 
of France, of England, of Virginia, and finally of the United 
States, until, on the SOth of May, 18-18, it was "admitted into 
the Union on an equal footing with the original States in 
all respects whatever." 

This claim of dominion carried with it the uncontested 
right of civil jurisdiction. 

In the earlier periods, the military and civil jurisdiction 
exercised by the governors and others, upon whom power 
was conferred, were so blended together, that if the govern- 
ment was not that of martial law, civil rights were recog- 
nized only through the channels of military authority; and 
it was not until the ordinance of 1787 " for the government 
of the territory of the United States northwest of the River 
Ohio," that the distinct civil rights of the inhabitants were 
recognized, and civil remedies for their enforcement pro- 
vided. 

Florida was claimed by Spain to extend as far as New- 
foundland on the sea coast, and westerly and northwesterly 
indefinitely, by virtue of the discovery of Ponce de Leon in 
1512, who was appointed governor of the country, and so 
continued until 1521. 

In 1537 Charles V. conceded to Ferdinand de Soto the 
government of the Isle of Cuba, with absolute power over 
the immense territory to which the name of Florida was 
still vaguely applied. De Soto died on the 21st of May, 
1542, and wrapped in a mantle was buried in the Mississippi, 
which he had been the first to discover. 

On the 20th of March, 15G3, a compact was framed and 
confirmed between King Philip II. and Pedro Melendez 
DE AviLES, by which, in consideration of the promise of 
Melendez to invade Florida, complete its conquest, and 
establish a colony, he was constituted its governor for life, 
with the right of naming his son-in-law as his successor. 

The history of civil government in Florida, previous to 
the seventeenth century, possesses no interest so far as ap- 
plicable to Wisconsin, whose soil was probably never 



1 52 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

pressed by the foot of a white man until the advent of 
Nicollet, in 1G34. We must therefore turn to the claims 
of dominion set up by France for the earliest pretensions of 
the right to establish civil government upon our domain. 

The charter grant of New France, made to the " hundred 
associates/' among whom were Richelieu, Champlain, 
Reszilly, and a number of opulent merchants of France, 
was referred to in the first chapter, and the fact stated that 
the government of the province was not entered upon until 
after the restoration of Quebec by the English in 1632. 

At this time Champlain was governor of Canada. 

In 1663 the company of the hundred associates resigned 
the colony to the king, and immediately, under the auspices 
of Colbert, it was conceded to the new company of the 
West Indies. 

In 1665 the colony was protected by a royal regiment, with 
Tracy as viceroy, Courcelles as governor, and Talon as 
intendant and representative of the King in civil affairs. 

In May, 1671, at the Sault St. Mary, the French, repre- 
sented by St. Lusson as the delegate of Talon, at an assem- 
bled congress of Indian tribes, raised a cross of cedar, and 
planted by the side of it a cedar column, marked with the 
lilies of the Bourbons. Thus were the authority and the 
faith of France uplifted in the presence of the aboriginal 
races of America, in the heart of our continent. 

It was eleven years later (1682) that La Salle, having 
descended the Mississippi to its mouth, formally took 
possession for France of all the country watered by the 
Father of Waters, and named it Louisiana. 

During the war in America between France and England 
declared by France in 1689 and terminated by the peace of 
Ryswick in September, 1697, Count Frontenac was gov- 
ernor of Canada. As a result of the war, France retained 
possession of all the territory which she claimed at the be- 
ginning of it, including Canada and the valley of the 
Mississippi; and the military occupation of Illinois con- 
tinued without interruption. 

The territorial claims of the English colonists on the 
Atlantic coast, to an extension of their limits westward, 
whatever they might have been under the terms of their 
respective charters, did not, during the seventeenth century, 
practically interfere with the French claims west of the 
great lakes and in the Mississippi valley. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT— 1513 TO 1834. 153 

Soon after the war, as earl}^ at least as 1700, De Calliers 
became governor-general of Canada. 

Previous to 1711 the settlements of Louisana had been a 
dependence on 'New France or Canada. In this year it was 
made an independent government, responsible only to the 
crown and comprising all the " Illinois country " under its 
jurisdiction. The seat of the colonial government was es- 
tablished at Mobile. De Muys, who had been appointed 
the governor-general, died on the voyage and Diron D'Ar- 
taquette, early in the year, entered upon his duties as 
commissary ordonnateur. 

In 1712, De la Motte Cadillac, who eleven years pre- 
viously had made the first permanent settlement at De- 
troit, was the royal governor of Louisiana. 

The Marquis de Vaudreuil was governor of Canada 
from 1704 until his death, April 10, 1725. His salary was 
the modest sum of £272 — Is — 8d. 

He was succeeded by the Marquis de Beauharnois who 
held the office until 1745. 

In that year Admiral de la Jonquiere was sent from 
France, as governor, with a naval expedition to capture 
Nova Scotia; but on the 3rd of May, 1746, they fell in with 
a British fleet under Admiral Anson and Rear Admiral 
Warren and were compelled to surrender. 

As soon as the capture of the Governor was known in 
France, Compte de la Gaiissonere was appointed to fill 
the vacancy, but the Admiral (Jonquiere) being shortly 
released from captivity and conveyed to Canada the Count 
(Galissonere) returned to France. Admiral Jonquiere, 
before his successor could be appointed, died at Quebec, 
May 17, 1752. 

The Marquis du Quesne de Menneville was appointed 
Governor of Canada, Ijouisiana, Cape Breton, St. Johns and 
their dependencies. 

The Marquis DU Quesne resigned and returned to the 
marine service and the Marquis de Vaudreuil de Cavag- 
NAC, son of the former governor, was appointed to succeed 
him. His commission was registered July 10, 1755, and he 
continued in office until the conquest by Great Britain in 

( bo. 

Major General James Murray was commissioned No- 
vember 21, 1763, as Captain General and Governor-in-Chief 
of the province of Quebec. 



154 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The claim of France to dominion over the whole of the 
Northwest Territory continued until it was successfully 
disputed by Great Britain, and finally relinquished as the 
result of the war which ensued between those two powerful 
rival nations. 

This claim of dominion in the entire valley of the Missis- 
sippi was practically evidenced by its settlements on the 
head waters of the Alleghany, which in 1753 led Governor 
DiNWiDDiE of Virginia to assert civil jurisdiction over those 
settlements, by sending young Washington, to demand of 
the commander of the French forces the reason for invad- 
ing the British dominions in a time of peace. 

This was soon followed by the war between France and 
England, which after varying fortunes resulted in the sign- 
ing of the preliminaries of peace on the third day of No- 
vember, 1762, and their ratification by treaty on the tenth of 
February, 17G3. 

By this treaty, the West Indies, Florida, Louisiana to the 
Mississippi (but without the island of New Orleans), all 
Canada, Acadia, and Cape Breton, with its dependent isl- 
ands, were all ceded to England; while New Orleans and 
all Louisiana west of the Mississippi, with boundaries unde- 
fined, were at the same time ceded to Spain. 

Virginia was the representative of the British claim to 
jurisdiction in the valley of the Ohio River and the civil ju- 
risdiction was represented in the person of the Governor of 
that colony. 

In October, 1776, the general Assembly of Virginia divided 
the district of West Augusta (then comprising all the north- 
western part of the State) into three distinct counties with 
the names of "Ohio, Yohogany and Monongahela." 

On Monday, the Gth January, 1777, the first court for the 
county of Ohio was held at Black's cabin. 

There is every reason to believe that this was the first 
civil court held in the valley of the Mississippi. 

The French posts in the "Illinois Country,"' having in 1778 
surrendered to Virginia, the inhabitants, upon learning of 
the alliance between France and the United States, readily 
joined the latter in the war against Great Britain, and ac- 
knowledged the jurisdiction of the United States and Vir- 
ginia over the country. 

The legislature of Virginia, in October 1778, formally ex- 
tended its jurisdiction over all the settlements on the Wabash 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 1512 TO 1834. 155 

and the upper Mississippi by establishing the county of Ill- 
inois, and appointing John Todd Lieutenant Colonel and 
civil commandant. 

The new county of Illinois embraced all of the territory 
within the limits of the present State of Wisconsin. 

Few events in the progress of civil government in the 
Northwest, worthy of record, transpired during the Revo- 
lutionary war, nor until the adoption by the Continental 
Congress of the ordinance of 1787. 

This ordinance was the fundamental as well as the or- 
ganic law — the Magna Charta of the great Northwest — 
and was adopted by the Continental Congress July 13, 1787, 
The territory to which its provisions applied was not other- 
wise defined than in the title, which was " The territory of 
the United States northwest of the River Ohio." 

The boundaries were well understood to be the Ohio river 
on uhe south, the Mississippi river on the west, while on the 
north the territorial limits were the undefined and unsettled, 
if not disputed boundary line, between the British posses- 
sions and the United States. 

This magnificent territory, vast in area, but destitute of 
civilized occupancy, except at the few points already men- 
tioned, was destined within a century to exercise a great, if 
not a controlling, influence upon the affairs of the nation. 

The first census, taken in 1790, does not show the popula- 
tion of the Northwest Territory, but in the census of 1800, 
in stating the population of Indiana Territory, it is said: 
*'0n the 1st of August, 1800, at Prairie du Chien were sixty- 
five souls; at Green Bay there were fifty souls." 

The population of the six States which have been formed 
out of it, by the census of 1880, was 12,989,571, being more 
than one fourth of the entire population of the United States. 

The present and future interest of the people of Wiscon- 
sin in this ordinance, aside from its historical interest, arises 
from the fact that they are entitled to all the rights and 
privileges granted and secured to the people of the North- 
western Territory by the articles of compact contained in it. 

The ordinance contained two distinct characteristics: 

One was the legislative feature, by which rules of inherit- 
ance were prescribed; the appointment of territorial officers 
— governor, secretary, judges, and inferior officers — was 
provided for, as well as the modes by which the functions of 
local legislation might be exercised. These provisions, and 



156 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

some others of a cognate character, were like any other leg- 
islative act, subject to be modified or repealed by the old 
Congress, or by that to which it gave place about twenty 
months later, organized under the Constitution of the United 
States. 

The other characteristic was the " articles of compact" 
which it contained, " between ' the original States and the 
people and States of the said territory," and which were to 
"forever remain unalterable unless by common consent." 

There were six of these " articles." 

By the fifth of them, the southern boundary of the States 
of Michigan and Wisconsin, it was declared, should be an 
"east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or 
extreme of Lake Michigan." 

The sixth has been styled the " charter of freedom," and 
prohibited " slavery and involuntary servitude in the said 
territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." 

The ordinance was published at length in the Revised 
Statutes of 1839. 

On the 15th of October, 1787, Gen. Arthur St. Clair was 
elected by the Continental Congress the first governor of 
the Northwestern Territory, and Winthrop Sargeant, secre- 
tary. On the 16th of October Samuel Holden Parsons, 
John Armstrong, and James Mitchell Varnum were 
elected the first judges of the Territory. 

Armstrong declined, and John Cleves Symmes was ap- 
pointed to the vacancy in February, 1788. Varnum died in 
1789, and William Barton was appointed his successor, but 
declined, and George Turner was appointed in 1789, to fill 
the vacancy, and accepted. 

Judge Parsons was drowned November 10, 1 789, in at- 
tempting to cross Big Beaver creek, and Rufus Putnam 
became his successor March 31, 1790. 

In 1796 Judge Putnam resigned and was succeeded by 
Joseph Oilman. 

On the 29th of October, 1798, Gov. St. Clair issued a proc- 
lamation directing an election on the third Monday of 
December, 1798, of members of the House of Representa- 
tives. 

The five persons selected by Congress to constitute the 
council were Jacob Burnett, Henry Vandenberg, Robert 
Oliver, James Findlay and David Vance. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 1513 TO 1834. 157 

The Council and House of Representatives met at Cincin- 
nati September IG, 1799, and elected William H. Harrison 
delegate in Congress from the Northwest Territory, who 
was the first delegate from a Territory ever admitted on 
the floor of the House of Representatives. 

General Harrison also succeeded Winthrop Sargeant as 
Secretary in 1798, and in 1799 was succeeded by Charles 
Willing Byrd. 

John Armstrong was Treasurer from 1792 to 1803. 

Wm. McMillan was elected delegate as the successor of 
General Harrison and served in 1800 and 1801, and in tarn 
was succeeded by Paul Fearing who held the office from 
1801 to 1803. 

On the 4th of January, 1803, a resolution was introduced 
that, Ohio having formed a state government, Mr. Fearing 
was no longer entitled to a seat as a delegate from the 
Northwestern Territory. The resolution, however, does not 
appear to have been acted upon. 

Ben,jamin Parke took his seat as delegate from the Ter- 
ritory of Indiana, December 12, 1805, and continued as such 
during that and the two next sessions when he resigned 
and Jesse B. Thomas was elected as his successor and took 
his seat December 1, 1808. 

In 1809 Jonathan Jennings was elected, and took his seat 
November 27, 1809. A memorial against his right to the seat 
was presented to the committee on elections who reported 
adversely to his right. The House, however, overruled the 
report and Mr. Jennings retained his seat during that and 
the next session. 

The Territory of Illinois was created February 3rd, 1809, 
and embraced the territory now forming Wisconsin. 

During the period from January, 1805, when the Territory 
of Michigan was created embracing Wisconsin, until Feb- 
ruary, 1809, Michigan had no delegate in Congress. 

Neither did the Territory of Illinois have any until the 
year 1812, when Shadrack Bond was elected delegate and 
took his seat December 3, 1812. A petition of Benjamin M. 
Piatt, protesting against the election of Mr. Bond was pre- 
sented, but was never acted upon, and he held the seat 
during that and the two subsequent sessions when he 
resigned. 

In 1814 Benjamin Stephenson was elected in place of Mr. 
Bond resigned, and continued to hold the office until 1816, 



158 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

when Nathaniel Pope was elected delegate and took his 
seat December 2, 1816, which he continued to hold until 
Illinois was admitted as a State in the Union. 

The first delegate elected from Michigan Territory was 
in 1819 when Wm. W. Woodbridge was chosen and held the 
office until the next year, when he resigned and Solomon 
Sibley was elected his successor and took his seat November 
20, 1820. 

In 1823 Gabriel Richard was elected delegate as the suc- 
cessor of Mr. Sibley and took his seat December 8, 1823. A 
petition representing that Mr. Richard was ineligible was 
presented by John Biddle, but it was withdrawn and no 
action taken on it, and Mr. Richard held the office during 
that and the next session 

In 1825 Austin E. Wing was elected, and re-elected in 
1827, serving the entire terms of the 19th and 20th Con- 
gresses. 

In 1829 John Biddle was elected and served until Feb- 
ruary 21, 1831, about ten days before the expiration of his 
term when he resigned. 

In 1831 Austin E. Wing was again elected. He took his 
seat December 8, 1831, and served until the expiration of his 
term, March 3, 1833. 

Lucius Lyon was elected in 1833, and took his seat De- 
cember 2d, 1833, and held it until March 3d, 1835. 

The inhabitants of Michigan, east of Lake Michigan, hav- 
ing in 1835 adopted a State constitution, although not yet 
admitted into the Union, did not elect a delegate in Con- 
gress but claimed to be represented in both houses of 
Congress as a sovereign State. The voters of Michigan 
Territory, however, not within the boundaries of the 
new State, together with a few within it, held an election 
in 1835, which resulted in the choice of George W. Jones, 
who took his seat December 7th, 1835. 

An act of Congress passed in 1789, provided that the 
President of the United States by and with the advice and 
consent of the Senate, should have all the power and au- 
thority and perform all the duties, in relation to the appoint- 
ment and removal of officers, wliich by the ordinance were 
to have been appointed by the United States in Congress as- 
sembled. And that the President of the United States, in- 
stead of Congress, should be the organ of communication 
with the Governor and other officers of the Territory. 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 1512 TO 1834. 159 

And that in case of the death, removal, resignation or 
necessary absence of the Governor, the Secretary should 
execute the powers and perform the duties of the Governor 
during such vacancy. 

In 1792, an act of Congress was passed which authorized 
the Governor and judges to repeal laws made by them, 
whenever the same might be found to be improper. That 
one of the judges in the absence of the others should be 
authorized to hold a court. And that the Secretary of State 
provide seals for the public officers in the territory. 

By act of December 15, 1800, the franking privilege was 
extended to the delegate, and his compensation fixed the 
same as members of the House. 

On the 7th of May, 1800, Indiana Territory was organ- 
ized, embracing all of the Northwestern Territory which lies 
to the westward of a line " beginning at the Ohio, opposite 
to the mouth of the Kentucky river, and running thence to 
Fort Recovery, and thence north until it shall intersect the 
territorial line between the United States and Canada." 

The act organizing the new territory created a govern- 
ment in all respects similar to that provided by the ordi- 
nance of 1787. 

The powers, duties, and compensation of territorial officers 
were the same as those of the " Northwestern Territory" 
under the ordinance of 1787. 

Saint Vincennes, on the Wabash river, was made the seat 
of the government for the new Indiana Territory. 

On the 30th of April, 180;3, Congress passed an act to 
enable the inhabitants of the eastern division to form a con- 
stitution and State government; the western boundary of 
which should be a line drawn north from the mouth of the 
Great Miami; which provided that the territory west of that 
line should be part of the Indiana Territory. 

On the 29th day of November, 1802, the constitution was 
adopted and State government created under the name of 
the " State of Ohio." 

By act of Congress passed February 19, 1803, it was de- 
clared that " the said State has become one of the United 
States of America," 

According to the census of 1800, the eastern division of 
the Northwestern Territory (Ohio) contained a population 
of 45,365, and the new Indiana Territory 5,641, of which 135 
were returned as slaves. 



KJO HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

An act to divide the Indiana Territory into two separate 
governments, approved January 11, 1805, prescribed that — 

•' All that part of the Indiana Territory which h'es north of a line drawn east from the 
southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, and east 
of a line drawn from the said southerly bend through the middle of said lake to its northern 
extremity, and thence due north to the northern boundary of the United States, shall, for 
the purpose of temporary government, constitute a separate Territoiy, and be called 
Michigan." * 

The provisions of government prescribed by the ordi- 
nance of 1787 were extended over the Territory of Michigan, 
as by the act of May 7, 1800, they had been over the In- 
diana Territory. Detroit was estabhshed as the seat of gov- 
ernment until Congress should otherwise direct. 

On the 3d of February, 1809 "an act for dividing the In- 
diana Territory into two separate governments," was passed, 
by which the civil jurisdiction in that portion of the terri- 
tory which is now Wisconsin, was conferred upon the gov- 
ernment of the newly created Territory of Illinois. 

The boundaries of the "Separate Territory" were by the 
act defined to be "all that part of the Indiana Territory, 
which lies west of the Wabash river and Post Vincennes, 
due north to the territorial line between the United States 
and Canada." 

The terms in which the powers of the territorial govern- 
ment were conferred upon its officers, and the appointment 
of officers provided for, were nearly identical with those 
used in the act of 1805 conferring like powers, and in the ap- 
pointment of like officers in the Territory of Michigan. 

Kaskaskia was established as the seat of government 
imtil it should be otherwise ordered by the legislature of the 
Illinois Territory. 

By an act of Congress, approved March 3d, 1815, Illinois 
was divided into three judicial circuits, and one of the three 
judges was assigned by allotment to each circuit. The 
judges were required to hold two terms annually in each 
county. The county of Madison was in the first circuit, 
and embraced all of the northern part of Illinois, and what 
is now Wisconsin. 

The courts had general, civil and criminal jurisdiction and 
their judges or a majority of them constituted a court of 
appeals, and was required to hold two sessions annually at 
Kaskaskia. 

St. Clair county, organized April 28, 1809, included the 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 1512 TO 1834. 161 

whole territory of Illinois and Wisconsin, to the British pos- 
sessions, and St. Clair and Randolph counties were the only 
counties in the Territory. 

Madison county was erected from St. Clair September J i, 
1812, and comprised all the territory north of the line of the 
second township south, to the line of the British possessions. 

Bond county, organized January 4, li?17, extended in a 
strip about thirty miles wide, on each side of the third prin- 
cipal meridian, to the northern boundary of the territory. 

The time had now arrived for Illinois to take her place as 
one of the states in the Union, and by an act of Congress 
passed April 18, 1818, the inhabitants of the Territory were 
authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state 
Government and to be admitted into the Union. 

The north boundary of the state was the parallel of north 
latitude of forty-two degrees and thirty minutes. 

It is noticeable that Congress in fixing the northern bound- 
ary of the new state, disregarded the fifth of the " articles 
of compact between the original states and the people and 
states in the said territory " contained in the Ordinance of 
1787, and which were to " forever remain unalterable, unless 
by common consent," and which contemplated that the 
northern boundary should be " an east and west line drawn 
through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." 

There is a semblance of an attempt, however, to obtain 
this common consent in a j)roviso, which immediately fol- 
lows the designation of boundaries, in these words: 

" Provided, that the convention hereinafter provided for, when formed, shall ratify the 
boundaries aforesaid : otherwise, they shall remain as now prescribed by the ordinance 
for the government of the territory, northwest of tlie river Ohio." 

The " people " of the fifth state (Wisconsin) were not con- 
sulted, and had no opportunity to " ratify " this transfer to 
Illinois of 8,400 square miles of the choicest part of that 
state as contemplated by the ordinance; an area extending 
sixty miles north and south, and from Lake Michigan to the 
Mississippi River. 

The act authorized the election of thirty-three represent- 
atives apportioned among the fifteen counties, to form a 
convention, which should meet at the seat of government 
on the first Monday of August, with authority to form a 
constitution and state government, if it should deem it ex- 
pedient: Provided, that it should not be repugnant to the 
11 



162 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Ordinance of 17 S7 '' excepting so much of said articles as 
relate to the boundaries of states therein to be formed." 

The convention met and on the 26th day of August com- 
pleted the formation of a constitution and state govern- 
ment, and, on the 3rd day of December, 1818, by a joint 
resolution of the two houses of Congress, Illinois was de- 
clared to be one of the states of the Union. 

Civil government of the remaining portion of the North- 
western Territory lying west of Lake Michigan was trans- 
ferred from Illinois Territory to Michigan Territory by the 
seventh section of said enabling act of April 18, 1818. 

An act passed February 16, 1819, authorized the citizens 
of Michigan Territory to elect a d(;legate to Congress who 
should possess the qualifications and exercise the privileges 
required of and granted to the delegates from the several 
territories of the United States. 

The elective franchise was conferred upon and limited to 
the free white male citizens of the Territory above the age 
of twenty-one years who had resided therein one year and 
paid a county or territorial tax. 

On the 30th day of January, 1823, an act was passed to 
take effect from and after the 20th of March, by the provis- 
ions of which an additional judge for the Michigan Terri- 
tory was required to be appointed 

"Who should possess and exercise within the counties of Michilimackinac, Brown and 
Crawford, the jurisdiction and powers possessed and exercised by the Supreme Court of 
the said Territory, and by the County Courts of said counties respectively, within the said 
counties, and to the exclusion of the original juinsdiction of the said Supreme Court." 

Appeals were allowed from the County Court to the court 
established by this act, and writs of error to this court, from 
the Supreme Court, and appeals in suits in equity. 

This court was required to hold one term annually in each 
county; at Prairie du Chien on the second Monday in May; 
at Green Bay on the second Monday in June, and at Macki- 
naw on the third Monday in July. 

The clerks 6f the court were the clerks of the County 
Courts and the officers appointed to execute the process of 
the County Courts, were authorized and required to execute 
the process of this court. 

The judge was required by the act to reside in one of the 
counties, and was paid the same salary and in the same 
manner as the judges of the Supreme Court. 

The first judge appointed under this act was James D, 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT — 1512 TO 1834. 103 

BoTY, only twenty-four years of age at the time of his ap- 
pointment. He first resided at Prairie du Chien for a short 
time and afterwards permanently at Green Bay, He was 
succeeded by David Irvix, who was appointed April 26, 
1832, by President Andrew Jackson, and continued to hold 
the office until the organization of the Territory of Wiscon- 
sin in 1836, having been appointed one of the three judges 
of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin Territory. 

A radical alteration of the mode in which the affairs of 
civil government were to be administered in the Territory 
of Michigan was made by an act of Congress passed 
March 3, 1823. 

It was provided by this act that the .same powers which 
were granted to the Governor, Legislative Council, and 
House of Representatives of the Northwestern Territory by 
the ordinance of 1787, and which were transferred to the 
Territory of Michigan by the act of January 11, 1805, were 
thereby conferred upon, and should be exercised by the 
Governor and a Legislative Council; that the Council should 
consist of nine persons, to serve for two years, of whom five 
should be a quorum, and be appointed as follows: The qual- 
ified electors of the Territory were to chose by ballot eigh- 
teen persons, whose names were to be transmitted by the 
Governor to the President of the United States, who was 
to nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, appoint therefrom nine, who should constitute the 
Legislative Council, 

The power of disapproval of any act passed by the Gov- 
ernor and Legislative Council was reserved to Congress. 

The act provided that the Legislature should have power 
to submit at any time to the people the question whether a 
general assembly should be organized, agreeably to the pro- 
visions of the ordinance of 1787, and for the mode of such 
organization if a majority of the qualified electors should 
be in favor of it. 

The tenure of office of the judges of the Territory was de- 
clared by the act to be limited to four years^ and that the 
office should become vacant on the first day of February, 
1824, and every four years thereafter. It was enacted that 
the judges should possess a chancery as well as a common 
law jurisdiction, and that their powers and duties should be 
regulated by such laws as were or might be in force in the 
Territory. 



104 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Two years subsequently the number of persons to be 
chosen by the people and transmitted to the President, from 
whom the members of the Legislative Council were to be 
appointed, was, by an act of Congress passed February 5, 
1835, increased from eighteen to twenty-six, and the number 
to be appointed from nine to thirteen, and their compensa- 
tion was increased from two to three dollars per day. 

By the same act the Governor and Legislative Council 
were authorized to divide the Territory into townships and 
provide for the election of township officers; and also to pro- 
vide for the election of all county officers, except judges of 
courts of record and clerk thereof, sheriffs, judges of pro- 
bate, and justices of the peace; and that all other non-elect- 
ive civil officers in the Territory, except such as are 
appointed by the President and Senate, should be appointed 
by the Governor and Legislative Council. 

The act also prescribed that not less than two judges of 
the Supreme, or Superior Court of the Territory should 
hold, or transact the business of a court. 

Such was the progress of the idea of popular government, 
that at the next Congress, by an act passed January 29, 1827, 
it was provided that the electors of the Territory, instead of 
choosing twenty-six, should " elect thirteen fit persons as 
their representatives,'' who should constitute the Legislative 
Council. The Governor and Legislative Council were to 
apportion the representatives among the several counties or 
districts in proportion to the number of inhabitants in each. 

But the reluctance to intrusting the people of a Territory 
with the power of electing their own representatives, in 
their own legislature, was such, that Congress, although it 
had the reserved power of disapproving of any act of the 
Territorial Legislature, inserted a section "that Congress 
have the right, at any time, to alter or repeal this act." 

The settlement of that part of Michigan Territory known 
as the " Lead Mines," had so increased by 1830, that an act of 
Congress was passed on the 2d of April, in that year, which 
provided " that the term of the court appointed to be held 
annually on the second Monday of May, at the village of 
Prairie du Chien, by the additional judge of the United 
States for the Territory of Michigan, shall be held on the 
first Monday of October, annually, at Mineral Point, in the 
county of Iowa," and the clerk and sheriff of that county 
were to be the clerk and sheriff of the court. 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 165 

The domain of the Territory of Michigan was more than 
doubled bv an act of Congress passed June 28, 1834, which 
added to it the territory now embraced in the states of 
Iowa, Minnesota, and that part of Dakota which lies east of 
the Missouri River. It was provided that "the inhabitants 
therein shall be entitled to the same privileges and immu- 
nities as the other citizens of Michigan Territory." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

LEGISLATION PKEVIOUS TO 1835. 

The last chapter was devoted to an account of civil gov- 
ernment for a period of 323 years, during which Wisconsin 
was successively under the dominion of Spain, of France, 
of Great Britain, Virginia, and the United States. 

To present in a connected way that feature of civil gov- 
ernment, which consists of its legislation, during the same 
period — or more correctly the latter half of it — is the 
purpose of this chapter. 

The first actual occupation of the I^orthwest Territory, as 
has been seen, was by the French. 

During this possession which continued until 17G3, when 
it was succeeded by British occupancy, the customs of 
Paris and the ordinances of the Kingdom with certain ar- 
rets and decrees of the Canadian authorities, constituted 
the rule of civil conduct in that extensive region of country. 

The administration of justice however seems to have 
been limited to the more densely settled portions of the 
country. There only, courts of justice were established. 

These laws were never enforced at any of the northern 
posts, or in the settlements which grew up in their vicinity. 
The parish priest and a few intelligent Frenchmen might 
have been provided with a copy of the " Coutume de Paris,^^ 
but there was no judicial officer to administer it. 

The only civil officer located at any of these posts, was a 
notary public duly commissioned by the governor. He 
was an educated man, versed in the '' Coutume " and a very 
important official, in view of the duties which devolved 



IGG HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

upon him. He was required to keep a register, in which he 
recorded all the legal instruments drawn by him. It was 
his duty to keep the original document, and to furnish the 
parties interested with certified copies. Some of these in- 
struments have been the subject of litigation in modern 

times. 
In all matters of controversy between the inhabitants, 

justice was administered by the commandant of the post in 
a summary manner. The party complaining obtained a 
notification to his adversary of his complaint accompanied 
by a command to render justice. If this had no effect he 
was notified to appear before the commandant on a partic- 
ular day and answer the complaint; and if the last notice 
was neglected, a sergeant and file of men were sent to bring 
him. The recusant was fined and kept in prison until he 
did his adversary justice. There was no sheriff and no 
costs. 

But the practical administration of laws during this period 
was exceedingly limited in its effects, in that portion of the 
ISTorthwest now constituting Wisconsin. The only inhabi- 
tants to be affected by it were at Green Bay, and possibly 
at Prairie du Chien. We have seen that as late as 17-i5 the 
colony at Green Bay did not exceed eight persons, and it is 
not probable that it was materially increased before the 
post was occupied by British troops in 1 7G1. It is a matter 
of serious doubt whether there were any inhabitants at 
Prairie du Chien until after the jurisdiction passed to Great 
Britain. 

On the 7th of October, 1763, immediately after the transfer 
of the country, the British King established by procla- 
mation four separate and distinct governments, called Que- 
bec, East and West Florida and Grenada, and at the same 
time introduced into these provinces the civil and criminal 
laws of England, but no part of the territory north of the 
Ohio river was embraced within the limits of either, and for 
a period of eleven years that portion of the country ap- 
peared to be without the pale of civil government. 

In 1774 a bill was introduced into Parliament as a govern- 
ment measure to make "more effectual provisions for the 
Government of Quebec in North America." Upon motion 
of Burke the bill was amended so as to embrace the whole 
Northwest Territory which was declared to be "annexed to 
and made a part of the Province of Quebec." 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 167 

The bill was passed and the domain which is now Wis- 
consin was subjected to its provisions by which 

"Canadian subjects were to hold and enjoy their property and possessions, with all cus- 
toms and usages relative thereto, and all their civil rights in as large, ample and benefi- 
cial manner as if the proclamation, ordinances and other acts had not been passed; and 
it is declared that in all matters of controversy, relative to property and civil rights re- 
sort should be had to the laws of Canada, as the rule for the decisions of the same. All 
suits relative to such jiroperty and rights, were to he determined agreeably to such laws 
and customs imtU. altered by the Governor and Legislative Council. The owner of lands, 
goods or credits had a right to alienate the same in his life-time, by deed of sale, gift or 
otherwise or to devise or bequeath the same, at his death, hy last will or testament to be 
executed either according to tlie laws of Canada or the laws of England. The criminal 
law of England was to be continued in force in the Province. The King might appoint 
a council, who should have power and authority to mate ordinances for the peace, wel- 
fare and good government of the Province, with the consent of the Governor, and which 
were to be also approved by the King; but no ordinance should be made touching reli- 
gion, or by which any pmiishment might be infUcled greater than fine and imprisonment 
for three months, until approved by the King." 

Such were the principal provisions of the act, which the 
Old Congress in 1774 denounced as unjust, because it 

" Extended the Province, so as to border on the western frontier of the colonies, estab- 
lishing an arbitrary government therein, and discouraged the settlement of British sub- 
jects in that wide extended country — thus by the influence of evO principles and ancient 
prejudices, to dispose the inhaljitants to act with hostility to the Protestant Colonies 
whenever a wicked ministry shall choose to direct them." 

This is the law which in the Declaration of Independence 
is referred to as one of those " acts of pretended legislation " 
to which the King had given his assent, in these words: 

" For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing 
therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging i(s boundaries, so as to render it at once 
an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these col- 
onies." 

Notwithstanding the adoption of this law the inhabitants 
of the district of country " annexed to and made a part of 
the province of Quebec " were not yet destined to realize 
the benefit of a civil government. A few justices of the 
peace were commissioned but this was all. 

A citizen of Detroit, who went there in 1778, relates that 
in 1779, the governor 

" Gettuig tired of administering justice, proposed to the merchants to establish a court 
of trustees, with jurisdiction extending to £10 Halifax cm-rency. Eighteen of these en- 
tered into a bond that three of them should be a weekly coiu-t, in rotation, and that they 
should defend any appeal which might be taken from their decision. They rendered 
judgment and issued execution, and imprisoned the defendant in the guard house." 

Neither the change of sovereigns or of laws seems to have 



168 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

resulted in any benefit to the inhabitants of that portion of 
' the annexed country, which now constitutes Michigan or 
Wisconsin. No courts had been established, no competent 
judge appointed, or jail erected. The settlements were still 
too remote from the provincial capital, and intercourse diffi- 
cult, and at times impracticable. The fostering care of 
these governments was almost entirely withheld from the 
early settlers. 

At length the Captain-General of the Province, by proc- 
lamation in 1788, laid out the province into separate districts; 
and that which embraces Michigan and Wisconsin was 
called " Hesse." 

On the 25th of November, 1790, the Imperial Parliament 
passed another act, by which it divided the Province of 
Quebec into two provinces, to be called the Province of 
Upper and Lower Canada respectively, each of which was 
to have a Legislative Council and General Assembly to 
make all laws not repugnant to that act, and to be approved 
by the King or the Governor, 

The Governor with the Executive Council (appointed by 
the King) were, in each of the Provinces, created a court of 
civil jurisdiction for hearing and determining appeals. The 
act declares that the lands in Upper Canada (comprising 
Michigan and Wisconsin) should be granted in fee and 
common socage as in England, and that any person holding 
lands should be entitled to a fresh grant if desired. 

The Legislature of Upper Canada by an act passed Octo- 
ber 15, 1702 

" Repealed the law of Canada and every part thereof, as forming a rule of decision in all 
matters of coutroversj- relative to property and civil rights, but this was " not to afTeet 
existing rights, claims on real property, contracts or securities already executed." 

From the passing of this act, in all matters of contro- 
versy relative to property and civil rights, it is declared that 
resort should be had to the laws of England as the rule for 
the decision of the same, and further 

" That all matters relative to testimony and legal proof in the investigation of fact and 
the forms thereof, in the several courts of law and equity, should be regulated by the 
rules of evidence in England."' 

Further legislation introduced jury trial, established a 
court of request in each district, and provided for the build- 
ing of a court-house and jail in every district. 

Among the acts passed in 1793 was one fixing the terms 
and places of holding the Courts of General Quarter Ses- 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 1(39 

sions of the Peace, and another estabhshing a Court of 
Probate, and also a Surrogate Court in all the districts. 

An act was also passed the same year to prevent the 
further introduction of slaves, and to limit the term of con- 
tracts for servitude within the province. The term was 
restricted to nine years from the date of the contract. 

" The owners of slaves at that time were confirmed in their property therein. The chil- 
dren that should be born of female slaves were to remain in the service of the owner of 
their mother until the asje of twenty-five years, when they were to be discharged. In case 
any issue should be born of children during their infant servitude or after, such issue were 
entitled to all the rights and privileges of free-born subjects." 

In 1794 an act was passed for the regulation of juries. 
Also in the same year an act " to establish a Superior Court 
of civil and criminal jurisdiction, and to regulate the Court 
of Appeal." 

The Court of King's Bench was required to be held by the 
Chief Justice and two Puisne judges; and its sessions were 
to be held " in the city, town, or place where the Governor 
or Lieutenant Governor should usually reside." The act is 
very minute in detailing the proceedings and practice of the 
court. 

The Court of Appeals was to consist of the Governor, 
Lieutenant Governor, or the Chief Justice, together with 
any two or more members of the executive council. The 
judges below might assign their reasons, but not give their 
votes on the appeal. 

An act to establish a court for the cognizance of small 
causes in each district was passed. By this act " the court 
for the Western District is required to be holden in the town 
of Detroit." 

In this year the Governor was authorized by law to license 
practitioners in the law. These were to be — 

" Liege subjects, not exceeding sixteen in number, as he should deem, from their educa- 
tion, probity, and condition in life, best qualified to act as advocates and attorneys;" they 
were then " holden as duly authorized to receive fees for practicing in any of the courts." 

In 1795 a law was enacted "for the public registering of 
deeds, conveyances, wills, and other incumbrances which 
might be made or affect real estate." It prescribes the man- 
ner of making up a memorial of these instruments for record 
in the county where the lands lie. 

On the 3d of June, 1796, the law which required the Quar- 
ter Sessions to be held at Mackinac was repealed, and as to 
the District Court which had been held at Detroit, it is de- 
clared that — 



170 ■ HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

" As it seems not to be any longer expedient to hold the said court in the town of Detroit, 
it should thereafter be held where the General Quarter Sessions might be held." 

The last term of this court was held at Detroit on the 29th 
of January, 179G. 

Early in the month of July, 179G, in accordance with the 
provisions of Jay's treaty, all jurisdiction over and occu- 
pancy by the British government of the territory now con- 
stituting Michigan and Wisconsin, was formally surrendered 
to the United States. 

On the 15th day of the same month a proclamation was 
issued by Governor St. Clair, by which the county of 
Wayne was organized. It included the northwest part of 
Ohio, the northeast part of Indiana, and the whole of Wis- 
consin, and part of Minnesota, and annexed the same by a 
mere executive act to the United States Territory north- 
west of the River Ohio. 

That the laws, usages and customs of a conquered or ceded 
country, continue in force till altered by the new sovereign, 
is a principle of jurisprudence which is universally recog- 
nized by the Supreme Court of the United States. 

This principle was applicable to the Northwest Territory 
after the transfer of jurisdiction from Great Britain to the 
United States. The laws and rights of the inhabitants un- 
der them were left as they had been. 

These laws were very materially modified by the action 
of the Governor and Judges of the Northwest Territory. 

In 1795 the Governor and Judges adopted an act from 
Virginia, by which it is declared that 

"The common law of England, all the statutes or acts of the British Parliament, made in 
aid of the common law prior to the fourth year of the reign of King James the First (and 
■which are of a general nature, not local to the Kingdom"), and also the several laws in force 
in the Territory, shall be the rule of decision, and shall be considered of full force, until re 
pealed by legislative authority or disapproved of by Congress." 

It was a contested question whether it was competent for 
the Governor and Judges to adopt this act, because it 
adopted as law in a new and thinly populated district, the 
whole jurisprudence of a foreign country, and because it 
was not an existing law of Virginia or of any original state. 
Upon this question the Judges were equally divided in 
opinion. 

During the year 1805, thirty-four different acts were 
adopted and published together, at Detroit, by the Governor 
and Judges of the Territory of Michigan, which was called 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 171 

the " Woodward Code," Hon. Augustus B. Woodward being 
then Chief Justice of the Territory. 

This code embraced nearly the entire scope of the civil 
polity of the newly created territorial government. 

Among the subjects to which the acts composing this 
code related stated in the order of their adoption were the 
following: a territorial seal; the Marshal; oaths; courts; 
juries; notaries; recovery of debts; marriages; holding of 
lands by aliens; appeals; recording deeds; ferries; tavern- 
keepers and retailers; auctions; militia; compensation of 
officers; wills and intestacies; the territorial treasurer; lit- 
erature; taxes; inquests; highways; imprisonment for debt 
and poor prisoners, paupers and some others. 

None of these acts were local, but the scope of their oper- 
ation embraced the entire limits of the territory; nor were 
any of them applicable exclusively to the Territory west of 
Lake Michigan. 

From February 3, 1809, until December 3, 1818, the terri- 
tory now embraced within the State of Wisconsin Avas 
under the jurisdiction of the Territory of Illinois. 

In 1816, a compilation was published containing the titles, 
with a digest or a copy of the Acts of the Territory of 
Michigan, which could then be ascertained to be in force. 

Hon. Lewis Cass was then Governor of Michigan and 
the compilation appears to have been made by the Gov- 
ernor and Judges, and was called the " Oass Code."' 

As the territory west of Lake Michigan was, at this time, 
a part of the Territory of Illinois, no alteration or repeal of 
former laws, nor any enactment of new ones, could have any 
effect upon its inhabitants until December 3, 1818, when 
upon the admission of Illinois into the Union, that portion 
of the Territory north of the new State of Illinois, was re- 
manded to the jurisdiction of Michigan Territory. 

On the IGth of September, 1810, an act of considerable im- 
portance was adopted by the Governor and Judges which 
continued in force in 1818 and subsequently was and may 
still be operative in Wisconsin, As it is nearly out of print, 
it is given entire — omitting the States from whose laws 
the several sections were adopted. 

" Whereas, The good people of the Territory of Michigan may be ensnared by ignor- 
ance of acts of the parUament of England, and of acts of the parliament of Great 
Britain, which are not published among the laws of the territory, and it has been thought 
advisable by the governor and the judges of the territory of Michigan, hereafter specially 
to enact such of the said acts as shall appear worthy of adoption: 



172 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

"■Be it therefore enacted by the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Michigan: 
That no act of the i-ariianient of England, and no act of the parliament of Great Britain 
shall have any force within the Territory of Michigan; Provided, that all rights arising 
under any such act, shall remain as if this act had not been made. 

" Section 2. And Whereas, the good people of the Territory of Michigan may be en- 
snared by ignorance of the laws of other governments under which this territory has 
heretofore been, that is to say, of the Coutume de Paris, or common law of France, the 
laws, acts, ordinances, arrets and decrees of the ancient kings of France, and the laws, 
acts, ordinances, arrets and decrees of the governors or other authority of the province 
of Canada, and the province of Louisiana, under the ancient French crown and of the 
governors, parliaments or other authorities of the province of Canada generally, and of 
the province of Upper Canada particularly, under the British crown, which laws, acts, 
ordinances, arrets and decrees do not exist of record, nor in manuscript or print in this 
country and have never been formally repealed or annulled. 

Be it enacted by the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Michigan: That the 
Coutume de Paris, or ancient French common law, existing in this country, the laws, acts, 
ordinances, arrets and decrees of the governors or other authorities of the province of 
Canada and the province of Louisiana, under the ancient French crown, and of the gov- 
ernoi's, parliaments or other authorities of the province of Canada generally and of the 
province of Upper Canada particularly under the British crown are hereby formally 
annulled, and the same shall be of no force within the Territory of Michigan; Provided, 
That all rights acci-uing under them, or any of them shall remain valid. 

" Section .3. And, whereas, Tlie good people of the Territory of Michigan may be en- 
snared by ignorance of laws adopted and made by the Governor and the judges of the 
ancient territory of the United States northwest of the River Ohio (it was then twenty- 
three years old), and of laws made by the General Assembly of the said territory, and of 
laws adopted and made by the Governor and the judges of the Territory of Indiana, under 
all of which respective governments this territory has heretofore been, and which said 
laws do not exist of record or in manuscript in this country, and are also out of print, as 
well as intermingled with a multiplicity of laws which do not concern or apply to this 
country, and tlierefore may not be expected to be reprinted in a body, and may not be ex- 
pected to be selected and reprinted in a detached form without much uncertainty, delay 
and difficulty, and it has been thought advisable by the Governor and the judges of 
the Territory of Michigan, heretofore, specially to re-enact such of the said laws as ap- 
peared woi-thy of adoption, and hereafter also to re-enact such of the said laws as shall ap- 
pear worthy of adoption: 

"£e it therefore enacted by the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Michigan: That 
the laws adopted and made by the Governor and judges of the territory of the United 
States northwest of the River Ohio, and the laws made by the General Assembly of the 
said territory, and the laws adopted and made by the Governor and judges of the Terri- 
tory of Indiana, shall be of no force within the Territory of Blichigan; provided, that all 
rights accruing under the said laws, or any of them, shall remain valid. 

" Section 4. And be it enacted, That all the laws passed between the second day of June 
180", and the first daj' of September, 1810, be repealed, saving all legal rights heretofore 
accruing under them." 

In 1821 a compilation of the laws in force in the Territory 
of Michigan was published, which was called the Code of 
1820, and comprehended all such laws as were essential to 
the successful administration of civil government within 
the Territory. 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 173 

The Governor of Michigan, in October, 1818, as ah*eady 
mentioned, laid out that part of the Territory west of Lake 
Michigan into three counties, viz.: Michihmackinac, Brown, 
and Crawford. 

An act adopted by the Governor and Judges on the 27th 
day of October, 1818, provided that the County Court for the 
counties of Brown and Crawford should be held on the sec- 
ond Monday of July in each year. In 1821, the time in 
Crawford county was changed to the second Monday of 
May. 

The act of Congress of March 3d, 1 823, creating a Legis- 
lative Assembly, provided that the first Legislative Coun- 
cil should be assembled, at such time and place, as the 
Governor should by proclamation designate. By virtue of 
that provision Governor Cass issued his proclamation on the 
15th of April, 1824, designating the Council House in De- 
troit as the place, and the first Monday of June, 1821, as the 
time for the assembling of the first Legislative Council of 
the Territory. Robert Irwin, Jr., was a member from 
Brown county during the years 1824 to 182? inclusive. 

On the 3d of July, 1824, an act was passed by the Gover- 
nor and Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan, 
convened in pursuance of the act of Congress of March 3d, 
1823, the preamble of which recited that "The judges of the 
County Court" of the county of Brown have neglected to 
comply with the requisitions contained in said proclama- 
tion of October 26, 1818, "to the great and manifest in- 
convenience of the people of said county;"' and that no 
particular place within the village of Prairie du Chien was 
designated where the public buildings should be erected, and 
it appearing doubtful by said proclamation which of the said 
villages upon the said prairie were alluded to; and said act 
prescribed as follows: 

"Section 1. That the County Commissioners of the county of Brown, or a majority of 
them, sliall have power and they are liereby required, on or before the first day of Octo- 
ber next ensuin.^, to establish tlie seat of justice of said comity of Bi-own, at any point they 
may deem expedient within six miles of tlie mouth of Fox River. 

"Section 3. That the seat of justice of the county of Crawford shall be and the same 
is established upon the farm lots situated at Prairie du Chien numbered 34 and 35 upon the 
map or sketch of the claims to lands at said place, submitted to the commissioners 
in the year 1820, and entered in the names of Pierre Lessard * and Strange Pass, 
or upon whichever of the said lots the three high mounds, lying immediately below 
the village of Ferriole (so called) and above the lot claimed by Francis La'Point, Sen., may 
be found to be situated when the boundary lines of said lots are run by the surveyor, or 
may be otherwise ascertained; and the County Commissioners are hereby required to erect 



174: HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the Court House upon the highest or center mound of said three mounds, and all the other 
public buildings of said county in the immediate vicinity thereof whenever the person who 
is the owner of said mounds and the lands adjacent shall execute to the commissioners of 
said county for the time being, for the use of said county, a quit-claim deed of a lot which 
shall Include the said three mounds, bounded in front by a certain road leading from the 
Village of St. Ferriole to the old French Trading Fort (so called) and extending in the rear 
of said mound thirteen rods." 

It is observable that at the next session of the Legisla- 
tive Council, held on the third Monday in January, 1825, the 
style of the acts was changed so as to read, " Be it enacted 
by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan," 
the " Governor," which had previously been inserted, being 
dropped. 

In illustration of the great length of time required to con- 
vey information to Prairie du Chien of legislation had at 
Detroit, especially in the winter, it is worthy of note, that, 
by an act passed February 4, 1825, the time for the election 
of a delegate to Congress was changed from the first Mon- 
day in April to the last Tuesday in May, 1825, and bi-enni- 
ally thereafter; and that it was also enacted — 

" That should an election be held at Prairie du Chien on the first Monday of April, such 
election shall be valid to all intents and purposes, any law to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing." 

By an act of the Legislative Council, approved April 21, 
1825, the act of July 3, 1824, "to establish the seats of justice 
within the counties of Brown and Crawford," was amended, 
so that the duties required by that act to' be performed by 
the commissioners of the county of Brown might 

" Be performed by the said commissioners, together with the justices of the county 
■court of said county and tlie Territorial judge for the countie'? of Brown, Crawford, and 
Michilimacinac, or a majority of them," 

who were required to perform the said duties within one 
year from the passage of the act. 

The boundaries of the county of Michilimacinac, as 
established by the Governor's proclamation of October 26, 
1818, were essentially altered by an act of the Legislative 
Council, approved December 22, 1826, to organize the county 
of Chippewa, which was made to embrace the entire south- 
ern shore of Lake Superior, as well as a vast domain west 
and northwest of that lake. 

The county seat of the new county was established at 
Sault de St. Marie. 

On the 12th of April, 1827, an act was passed "to divide 
the several counties in this Territory into Townships." In 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 175 

that portion of the Territory which is now Wisconsin, but 
two townships were formed. One was in Crawford county 
called "St. Anthony," which was bounded on the north by 
the parallel of north latitude 43° 30', on the east by a line 
running parallel with aiid ten miles easterly from the Mis- 
sissippi river, on the south by the parallel of north latitude 
42° 30', and on the west by the Mississippi river. 

The other Avas in Brown County, and was called Green 
Bay. Its southwestern boundary was a line running south- 
east and northwest through the head of the rapids of the 
Grand Kaukaulin, and extending ten miles on such line 
€ach way therefrom. The northeastern boundary was a line 
drawn northwest and southeast through Point au Sable of 
Green Bay, and extending ten miles on such line, each way 
therefroin. The southeast and northwest boundaries were 
parallel lines, twenty miles apart, connecting the other 
boundaries. Fox river consequently run through nearly the 
center of the township. 

An act approved April 12, 1837, provided for taking a cen- 
sus of the inhabitants of the Territory, by the assessors in 
the several townships in the Territory, at the time they 
make the assessment for that year. 

Another act approved April 13, 1827, required that as soon 
as might be after the census returns were received at the of- 
fice of the Secretary of the Territory it should be the duty 
of the Governor to apportion the thirteen members com- 
posing the Legislative Council, among the several counties, 
in a mode specified in the act. 

The act also provided that in tlie counties of Brown and 
Crawford the census should be taken by the sheriffs of those 
counties instead of the assessors. 

In pursuance of the requirements of this act Governor 
Lewis Cass, on the -id day of October, 1827, issued his proc- 
lamation, announcing the number of members of the coun- 
cil apportioned to the different counties, among which it 
was announced that the counties of Crawford, Brown, Mich- 
ilimacinac and Chippewa should form one district which 
was entitled to elect two members of the council. 

It was further provided by the act, that the election for 
members of the council, should be held on the first Monday 
of November, 1827. 

At that election Henry R. Schoolcraft, of Chippewa 



170 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

county, and Robert Irwin, Jr., were elected members of the 
council. 
It was provided by an act approved June 3, 1828 

" That the additional juds:e for the Michigan Territory in the counties of Michili- 
macinac, Browai and Crawford, be authorized to hold a special session of the circuit 
court for the county of Crawford on Monday, the S5th day of August next, aid so long a 
time thereafter as may be necessary for the trial of all such criminal cases as shall then 
and there be moved and prosecuted in said court." 

The object of this special term, was the trial of Red Bird, 
We-kau and Chic-hon-sic for the murders perpetrated at 
the breaking out of the Winnebago war. 

By an act approved June 18, 1838, all civil and criminal 
jurisdiction of the county courts in the counties of Michili- 
macinac, Brown and Crawford was transferred to the 
circuit court of the United States, to be held in each of the 
said counties. 

This jurisdiction was restored to the county of Crawford 
by an act passed July 31, 1830. 

The Legislative Council consisted of thirteen members, 
and by an act approved July 3, 1838, they were apportioned 
among the several counties. The counties of Michilimacinac, 
Brown, Crawford and Chippewa, constituted the sixth dis- 
trict which was entitled to two members. 

The act provided that the next election should be held on 
the second Monday of July, 1839, and on the same day in ev- 
ery second year thereafter. 

Messrs. Schoolcraft and Irwin were elected. Two ses- 
sions of the council were held, one commencing May 11, 
1830, which adjourned July 31. The other commenced Janu- 
ary 4, 1S31, and adjourned March 4. Mr, Irwin did not 
attend the second session. 

The county of Iowa was organized by an act approved 
October 9, 1839. 

The boundaries, as prescribed by this act, were as follows: 

' ' Beginning at the mouth of Ouisconsin River and following the course of the same so 
as to include all the islands in said river to the portage between the said Ouisconsin and 
the Fox River; thence east until it intersects the line between the counties of Brown and 
Crawford, as established by the proclamation of the Governor of this Territory, bearing 
date the 26th day of October. 1818; thence south with said line to the northern boundary 
of Illinois; thence west with said boundary to the Mississippi River; thence up said river 
with the boundary of this Territory to the place of beginning." 

Samuel W, Beale and Lewis Grignon of the county of 
Brown and Joseph M. Street of the county of Crawford 
were appointed commissioners to fix the seat of justice of 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 177 

the county, which was temporarily estabhshed at Mineral 
Point. 

The 5th section of the act provided that there should be 
two terms of the county court of said county annually on 
the first Mondays of June and December. 

It was provided by the seventh section that the organiza- 
tion of Iowa county should not affect suits, prosecutions, 
and other matters pending in the United States circuit court 
or the county court, or before any justice of the peace 
in Crawford county, nor the levy or collection of taxes. 

An act was passed July 27, 1830, to legalize the proceed- 
ings of officers within the county of Iowa. 

The next day an act was passed excepting the counties of 
Chippewa and Iowa from the operation of the law requir- 
ing freehold security to be given for any purpose, or as a 
qualification for office. 

The third section of the act authorized the judges of the 
county court of Iowa county to order the sitting of said 
court at such place in the county as to them might seem 
most convenient for the public interest, until the necessary 
public buildings were erected at the county seat. 

The fourth section provided for annexing unorganized 
townships in Iowa county to organized townships. 

The fifth and sixth sections authorized the sheriffs of 
Brown, Crawford, Chippewa and Iowa counties to provide 
for the security and health of prisoners until sufficient and 
secure gaols were provided. And the eighth section au- 
thorized the sheriffs to employ convicts, sentenced to hard 
labor, in work on the public highways or on the public 
buildings. 

The 7th section provided that until a treasurer should be 
elected in Iowa county, bonds and other securities required 
to be approved and filed with him should be approved and 
remain with the justices of the county court, until a treas- 
urer be appointed. 

The Miners' Journal, of Galena, August 7, 1830, says: 

"Lucius Lton, Esq., of Detroit, is now engaged, under instructions from the Secretary 
of War, in surveying' and marking the boundary between the ceded and unceded lands 
west of Lake Michigan, and east of the Mississippi, agreeably to the stipulations of the 
treaty of Prairie du Chien, of 1829. 

" The survey of the boundaries of the Pottawattamies, etc., commencing on Lake Michi- 
gan, about twelve miles north of Chicago and running west to Rock river, has been fin- 
ished. The distance from the lake to Rock river is eighty-four miles, and the boundary 
strikes the river forty miles below the mouth of the Peck-a-ton-o-kee. 
13 



178 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

" Mr. Lyon and Mi-. Kerchevai. arrived at Galena in a light pleasure wagon, which was 
the first that ever came through from Detroit by way of Chicago and the branches of Roc-k 
river. The distance is about five hundred miles." 

A new apportionment of members of the Legislative 
Council was made by an act approved March 4th, 1831. But 
no change in the representation of the sixth district as fixed 
by the act of July 3, 1828, except that the county of Iowa — 
organized in 1829 — was named as constituting a part of the 
district, and the numbering of it was changed from sixth to 
seventh. 

It is also observable, as showing that the organization of 
Wisconsin Territory was contemplated more than five years 
before its occurrence, that the act provided, that if the 
counties constituting the seventh district, should " at the 
present session of Congress " — which expired on that day — 
be set off into a separate territory, to what districts its two 
members should be assigned. 

The act also provided in contemplation that the number 
of members should be increased by act of Congress; that 
in that event the Governor should apportion them to each 
of the districts according to population as shown by the 
census of 1830. 

The tenth section of the act fixed the first session of the 
fifth legislative council on the first Tuesday of May, 1832, 
at Detroit. 

The members elected to the fifth Legislative Assembly 
were Henry Dodge of Iowa county and Morgan L. Martin 
of Brown county. The first session convened at Detroit, 
May 1, 1832, and adjourned June 29th. The second session 
convened January 1, 1833, and adjourned April 23. Mr. 
Dodge did not attend either session. 

It 'was provided by an act approved June 29, 1832, that the 
electors of the several townships in the Territory should 
express by their votes on the first Tuesday of October, 1832, 
" whether it be expedient for the people of this Territory to 
form a State Government; yea or nay." 

Owing to the paucity of newspapers in the counties of 
Brown, Iowa and Crawford, an act was passed February 1, 
1833, substituting the posting of notices in legal proceedings 
" on the door of the house, where the circuit court was last 
held," for the publication in newspapers, required by law. 

The additional Judge for the Michigan Territory was 
authorized by act approved April 6, 1833, to hold special 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 179 

sessions of llie circuit court for the counties of Brown or 
Iowa, at such time and place as he may deem expedient for 
the trial of criminal cases. 

The judges of the county court of Iowa county were au- 
thorized by an act approved April 20, 1833, 

" To designate as many several places in said county in addition to those provided by 
law, as they shall deem expedient, where the electors of said county may meet for the 
purpose of voting for delegate to Congi-ess and members of the Legislative Council." 

The supervisors of the county of Iowa were authorized 
and required by an act approved April 33d, 1833, to locate 
the seat of justice of said county, at some point therein 
which shall be most convenient. 

They were required to do so on or before the 1st day of 
July, 1833, and if they failed the county seat should con- 
tinue at Mineral Point. 

The time and place of the meeting of the sixth Legislative 
Council was fixed for the first Tuesday of January, 1834, at 
Detroit. 

It was provided by act of April 23, 1833, that the election 
districts established by act of March 4, 1831, should remain 
unchanged. 

At the election of 1833, the official returns forwarded 
showed that James D. Doty was elected a member of the sixth 
Council, and that Wm. S. Hamilton was elected over Mor- 
gan L. Martin; but the returns from Crawford county, which 
changed the result, were not forwarded, and Col. Hamilton 
did not claim the seat and Mr. Martin was admitted. The first 
session convened January 7, 1834, and adjourned March 7, 
An extra session met September 1, 1834, and adjourned 
September 8. An adjourned session met November 11, 
1834, and adjourned December 31. The second regular 
annual session convened January 12, 1835, and adjourned 
March 28. Morgan L. Martin was elected President. A 
special session met August 17, 1835, and adjoMrned 
August 25. 

No act affecting that part of the territory west of Lake 
Michigan appears to have been passed at the January ses- 
sion 1834. 

An act of Congress, of June 30, 1834, authorized an extra 
session of the Legislative Council. In pursuance of this act, 
Acting Governor Mason, on the 14th of July, issued his proc- 
lamation for the extra session, held at Detroit, September 1, 
1834. 



180 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Resolutions were adopted, declaring the right of the in- 
habitants under the Ordinance of 1787 to form a state 
government bounded on the south by an east and west 
line, through the southern bend or extreme of Lake Michi- 
gan, and requesting the state of Virginia to require of the 
government of the United States a strict compliance with 
the Ordinance of 1787. 

On the Gth of September, 1834, an act was passed entitled 
"An Act to establish the boundaries of the counties of 
Brown and Iowa, and to lay off the county of Milwaukee." 
The act was as follows: 

"Section 1. That all that district of country bounded north by the county of Michili- 
macinac, west by the Wisconsin river, south by the line between townships eleven and 
twelve north in the Green Bay land district, and east by a line drawn due north, through 
the middle of Lake Michigan, untU it strikes the southern boundary of the county of Mich- 
ilimacinac, shall constitute the county of Brown. 

Section 2. All that district of country bounded north by the middle of the Wisconsin 
river, west by the Mississippi, south by the north boundary of Illinois, and east by the 
principal meridian dividing the Green Bay and Wisconsin land district (this was the range 
line between ranges eight and nine east) shall constitute the coxmty of Iowa. 

Section 3. All that district of country bounded north by the county of Brown, east by 
the eastern boundary of Illinois extended, south by the state of Illinois and west by the 
county of Iowa, shall constitute the county of Milwaukie. 

Section 4. The county of Milwaukie is hereby attached to the county of Bi-own for ju- 
dicial purposes." 

It remained attached to Brown county, until August 25, 
1835, when an act was passed giving it an independent 
organization. 

Another act was passed, by which all of the territory west 
of the Mississippi river, which had been attached to Michi- 
gan Territory by act of Congress approved June 28, 1834, 
was divided into two counties which were laid out and or- 
ganized; the northern one by the name of Dubuque, and 
the southern one by the name of Demoine. 

The division line between the two counties was 

"A line to be drawn due west from the lower end of Rock Island to the Missouri river." 

The sixth section of the act provided that 

"Process, civil and criminal, issued by the Circuit Court of the United States for the 
county of Iowa, shall run into all parts of said counties of Dubuque and Demoine. That 
writs of error shall lie from the Circuit Court for the comity of Iowa to the County Courts 
established by this act." 

It was provided by an act approved September 6, 1834, 
that a census of the inhabitants of the territory east of the 
Mississippi river, should be taken by the sheriffs of the 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 181 

several counties, between the second Monday of October, 
and the first Monday of November, 1834. 

The first act incorporating a bank west of Lake Michigan 
was passed January 23, 1835, the title of which was "An act 
to incorporate the stockholders of the Bank of Wisconsin." 

The act provided that a bank should be established in the 
county of Brown or Iowa, at such place as a majority of the 
stockholders should determine; the capital stock whereof 
should be $100,000, in shares of $50 each. Subscriptions to- 
ward the stock were to be opened at Green Bay and Mineral 
Point, of which two months' notice was to be given in 
a newspaper printed at Detroit, under the superintendence 
of John D. Ansley, John P. Arndt, Charles Tullar, Will- 
iam Dickinson, George D. Ruggles, Henry Merrill, and 
Nathan Goodell. 

The bank was put in operation at Green Bay, and had a 
history, which will be adverted to in subsequent pages. 

A dam across Fox river at the head of a rapid in said 
river, called the Rapide des Peres, was, by an act approved 
January 26, 1835, authorized to be built by William Dick- 
inson, Charles Tullar and John P. Arndt. The dam was 
subsequently built, and the village of Des Peres grew up at 
that point. 

The first effective step toward the formation of a State 
government in Michigan was taken January 26, 1835, by an 
act of the Legislative Council approved that day, entitled 
"An act to enable the people of Michigan to form a consti- 
tution and State government." 

The Territory as established by the act of Congress, en- 
titled "An act to divide Indiana Territory into two separate 
governments," approved January 11, 1805, was by the act 
divided into sixteen districts, among which were appor- 
tioned eighty-nine delegates, to be elected by the several 
districts on the 4th day of April, 1835. 

The delegates were elected April 4, 1835, and were to meet 
at the capitol, in the city of Detroit, on the second Monday 
of May, 1835. 

There w^ere eighty-seven delegates, and as political par- 
ties were then divided, there were about seven eighths Dem- 
ocrats and one eighth Whigs. John Biddle, who had 
previously been delegate in Congress, was president of the 
convention. 

The constitution was adopted by a vote of the people in 



182 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

October, 1835, there being G,^09 yeas and 1,359 nays. It re- 
mained in force as the fundamental law of the State until 
the constitution of 1850 went into operation. 

On the 11th day of July, Secretary and Acting Governor 
Stevens T. Mason issued his proclamation for a special ses- 
sion of the Legislative Council at Detroit on the 17th day of 
August, 1835. No reason for this session was assigned in 
the proclamation, except that — 

" Matters of import involving the rights and Interests of the Territory require the con- 
sideration of the Legislative Council."' 

The Council met at the time named in the proclamation, 
James D. Doty being the sole representative of that part of 
the Territory west of Lake Michigan. It was disclosed by 
the message of the Acting Governor that the principal 
"matter of import" was the southern boundary controversy 
with Ohio. Some other matters, however, received the at- 
tention of the Council. Of those affecting Wisconsin were 
the following: 

An act changing the time of electing delegate to Congress 
and members of the Council from the first Monday of No- 
vember to the first Monday of October, and changing the 
officers who were to canvass the votes for delegate to Con- 
gress and certify the result. 

An act to organize the county of Milwaukee; and an act 
to incorporate the Wisconsin Internal Improvement Com- 
pany. This related to the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. 

The Council was in session only about ten days. 

The following appointments for the newly-organized 
county of Milwaukee were made by the Governor and 
Council: 

Chief Justice, William Clark; Associate Justices, Joel 
Sage and James Griffin; County Clerk, Albert Fowler; 
Sheriff, Benoni Finch; Judge of Probate, Gilbert Knapp; 
Justices of the Peace, Benjamin Finch, John Bullen, Jr., 
William See, Joel Sage, Symmes Butler, Henry Sander- 
son, and William Clark. 

The laws of the Territory of Michigan, so far as the same 
were applicable to the counties of Brown, Crawford, Iowa, 
and Milwaukee, were the laws governing those coun- 
ties from the time they were respectively organized 
until they were altered or repealed by the Legislative As- 
sembly of Wisconsin after its organization on the 4th of 
July, 1836. 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1S35. 183 

And after that time the laws of Michigan, not incompat- 
ible with the organic act of Wisconsin Territory, were 
extended over it, subject to alteration, modification, or re- 
peal. 

The most important of these laws were those affecting the 
rights of persons and property. 

The judicial system of Michigan Territory consisted of a 
Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, County Courts, Probate 
Courts, and justices of the peace. 

The Supreme Court consisted of three judges appointed 
by the President of the United States. 

This court had original and exclusive jurisdiction in all 
civil actions at law, where the matter in controversy ex- 
ceeded one thousand dollars; all cases of divorce, all actions 
of ejectment, all criminal cases wdien the punishment was 
capital, and of all cases not made cognizable before some 
other court. It had concurrent jurisdiction with the county 
court of all other crimes and offenses; and appellate juris- 
diction from the county courts in all civil cases in which 
those courts had original jurisdiction. 

The Supreme Court had power to issue writs of habeas 
corpus, mandamus, prohibition, error, supersedeas, proce- 
dendo, certiorari, scire facias, and all other writs which 
might be necessary to enforce the administration of right 
and justice. It held one term annually at Detroit on the 
third Monday in September. 

The laws prescribed with much particularity the mode of 
proceeding and the practice in the court, and clothed it with 
all authority essential to the complete and effective exercise 
of its judicial powers. 

In 1825 the Territory, except the counties of Brown, Craw- 
ford and Michilimacinac was divided into five circuits, and 
one of the judges of the supreme court was required to hold 
a circuit court in each circuit. But the act of Congress 
passed in 1823, by which an additional judge for the Michi- 
gan Territory was required to be appointed for the counties 
of Brown, Crawford and Michilimacinac, rendered it unnec- 
essary, if not incongruous that the circuit court system of 
eastern Michigan, should be extanded to these counties, 
and they were therefor excepted from the operation of the 
circuit court system established in 1825. 

The county court system of jurisprudence, although it 
had previously existed, was revised and re-organized by an 



184 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

act of the Governor and judges adopted on the 21st of 
December, 1820. 

It was provided by this act that a court should be estab- 
lished in every county of the Territory, to consist of one 
chief justice and two associate justices, any two of whom 
should form a quorum. It had original jurisdiction in all 
civil cases where the matter in controversy was not within 
the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, and did not exceed 
the sum of one thousand dollars; and appellate jurisdiction 
from any judgment or decision of justices of the peace. It 
also had cognizance of all crimes and offenses the punish- 
ment whereof is not capital, concurrent with the Supreme 
Court. 

It is, however, to be borne in mind, that in the counties of 
Michilimacinac, Brown and Crawford, and subsequently in 
Iowa and Milwaukee counties, the additional judge for 
those counties was substituted for the Supreme Court. 

Clerks of the County Court were appointed by the Gov- 
ernor. 

The terms of the court were limited to two weeks. 

The practice, pleadings and proceedings in the court were 
most minutely provided for by the act; even to the extent 
of providing that paper instead of parchment should be 
used in all proceedings in the court. 

An act passed April 21, 1825, provided that the county court 
in Brown county should be held on the second Monday in 
January, and in Crawford county on the second Monday in 
May. 

By an act approved April 12, 1827, it was provided that 
the county courts should have jurisdiction in all matters 
properly cognizable in chancery, where the sum or matter 
in dispute does not exceed one thousand dollars, with a 
right of appeal in all cases. 

The probate court consisted of a judge in each county, 
appointed by the Governor, and possessed the power and 
jurisdiction ordinarily exercised by probate courts. 

The judicial powers vested in justices of the peace were 
similar to those ordinarily exercised by like officers, except 
that they were restricted to matters where the subject in 
controversy did not exceed one hundred dollars. 

As intimately connected with and essential to the proper 
administration of justice, suitable provision was made by 
law in reference to attorneys, the marshal of the Territory, 



LEGISLATION PREVIOUS TO 1835. 185 

sheriffs, coroners, constables, grand and petit juries, as 
well as notaries public, and in relation to the compensation 
of officers. 

As incidental thereto, proper laws were enacted in refer- 
ence to amendments and jeoffails, attachments, executions 
depositions, arbitrations, marriages, divorce, bastardy, wills 
and intestacies, executors and administrators, settlement and 
descent of estates, insolvent estates, and guardians as well 
as to the execution and recording of deeds, fraudulent con- 
veyances, forcible entry and detainer, partition of lands 
and surveyors, also providing for the punishment of crimes 
and the trial of accused persons, and prohibiting gaming. 

The duties of the treasurer of the Territory and county 
treasurers, and the levying and collection of taxes were all 
regulated by law. 

Imprisonment for debt not having been abolished, proper 
laws were passed in relation to poor debtors and their dis- 
charge. 

The subject of slavery not having been much agitated as 
early as 1827, an act was passed in that year which pro- 
vided, that no black or mulatto person should settle or reside 
in the Territory without a certificate of freedom; and made 
it a penal offense to harbor or secrete any such person, the 
propert}" of another, or to hinder or prevent the owner from 
recapturing him or her. All blacks and mulattoes were re- 
quired to enter bonds for good behavior, and that they should 
not become a public charge, as a condition of residence. 

Laws were passed to enforce the observance of the Sab- 
bath and concerning religious societies, as well as for the 
establisment of common schools. 

Interest was regulated by law, six per centum being the 
established lawful rate. 

An organized militia was provided for. 

The support of paupers was provided for by contract with 
the lowest bidder. 

The appointment of auctioneers was provided for. 

Laws were passed in relation to highways and fences and 
many other subjects affecting the civil and criminal polity 
of the Territory. 



18G HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



CHAPTER XV. 

WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-G. 

In 1825, to a very limited extent, but more generally in 
1826, 1827, and 1828, the country known as the Upper Missis- 
sippi lead mines, as contra-distinguished from the Missouri 
mines, was occupied in numerous localities by adventurers 
from every part of the country. This occupancy at first 
was confined to the immediate vicinity of Galena, but soon 
extended to Grant, La Fayette, and Iowa counties, and to 
the western part of Dane and Green counties. It was not, 
however, until after the " Winnebago war" of 1827, and the 
Black Hawk war in 1832, and the Indian treaties which 
were the result, that such a feeling of security attended the 
inhabitants as was essential to the permanent and secure 
growth and prosperity of the country. 

By the treaties of Prairie du Chien, of July 29th and Au- 
gust 1, 1829, and of Rock Island of September 15th and 21st 
of that year, and of September 21st, 1832, the Indian title to 
much territory was extinguished, its boundaries defined, the 
removal of the Indians secured, and occupancy by the 
whites divested of its hazards. 

Col. William S. Hamilton was a son of Gen. Alexander 
Hamilton; of Revolutionary fame. He had been engaged 
in surveying the public lands in Illinois, and in 1825, having 
entered into a contract to supply the garrison at Fort How- 
ard with provisions, he left the southern part of Illinois with 
seveft hundred head of cattle, and proceeded with his whole 
drove by the way of Chicago, coasting the lake by the 
mouths of the Milwaukee, Sheboygan and Manitowcc rivers 
to Green Bay, where he arrived in safety on the 27th of 
June, without any material loss of his cattle. On reaching 
Milwaukee he found Solomon Juneau, who had a trading 
house on the east side of the river, near where Wisconsin 
street is now laid out. Mr. Juneau was the only civilized 
human being then living near the lake shore between Chi- 
cago and Green Bay. Col. Hamilton, in 1828, removed to 
what is now Wiota, in La Fayette county, where he lived 
about twenty years, when he removed to California, and 
died there in ] 851. 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 18? 

From 1825 to 1830, although the settlements in Wisconsin 
were limited to those in the lead mines and the older 
ones near Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, the wants 
of the people for a nearer local self-government than 
that provided for Michigan Territory, the seat of which 
was at Detroit, were seriously felt, and exhibited in 
numerous ways. Public attention was called to the 
subject by the inhabitants of Green Bay, and in Feb- 
ruary, 1839, Gen. Henry Dodge, in behalf of the in- 
habitants of the lead mines, in a letter to Hon. Austin E, 
Wing, then delegate in Congress from Michigan Territory, 
with great force presented the " claims the people have on 
the National Legislature for a division of the Territory." 

On the Gth of January, 1830, the committee on the Terri- 
tories in the House, reported "A Bill establishing the Terri- 
tory of Huron," It was bounded southwardly by the states 
of Illinois and Missouri; westwardly by the Missouri river 
and the White Earth river; northwardly by the northern 
boundary of the United States and eastwardly 

"By a. line running from the nortlieast corner of the state of Illinois, down Lake Micliigan 
east of the Fox and Beaver islands, through the straits to the soutliern extremity of 
Bois Blanc island and south of said island, thence due east to the boundary of the United 
States in Lake Huron." 

This boundary would have cut off from the Territory of 
Michigan, and perhaps the future state, all of its upper pen- 
insula on Lake Superior, the Sault St. Marie and even the 
island of Mackinac. 

The bill vested the legislative power of the Territory in 
the Governor and a Legislative Council to consist of five per- 
sons, one from each of the counties of Brown, Crawford, 
Iowa, Chippewa and Michilimacinac. 

The bill provided that the seat of government of the Ter- 
ritory should be established at the village of Munnomonee on 
the Fox river, but subject to be changed by the Governor 
and Legislative Council with the approbation of Congress. 
Ten thousand acres of land to be located by the Governor, 
below the Grand Kau-kau-nah on the said river were given 
to the Territory to defray the expenses of erecting public 
buildings at the seat of government. 

The bill did not become a law and Michigan Territory for 
the time being remained intact. 

In 1831 a bill to create a new Territory in the western 
part of Michigan passed the House of Representatives, but 



188 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

did not pass the Senate. In 1832 another bill for the same 
purpose was reported in the House and remained over 
among the unfinished business. In October of that year 
under authority of an act of the Legislative Council, a vote 
of the inhabitants was taken in favor of the formation of a 
state government for Michigan. 

On the 14th of December, 1833, at a public meeting at 
Green Bay, resolutions were adopted in favor of a new Ter- 
ritory, and a memorial to Congress for its creation was pre- 
pared and presented. 

Jealousy existed between the people of the mines and 
those of the Green Bay country, as to the location of the 
seat of government; whether it should be at Mineral Point 
or near Green Bay. This jealousy was one of the causes 
which had previously prevented the passage of either of 
the bills on this subject. 

On the 14th of February, 1834, a bill establishing the Ter- 
ritory of Wisconsin, by which the location of the seat of 
government was left to the decision of the Governor and Leg- 
islative Council was reported in the Senate. This bill did not 
pass, but instead of it the act of June 28, 1834, was passed, 
which, by attaching to the Territory of Michigan all the ter- 
ritory of the United States west of the Mississippi River 
and north of the State of Missouri, increased the necessity 
for a new territorial government. 

On the loth of June, 1836, Congress provided by an act 
for that purpose for the admission of Michigan as a state 
in the Union, upon certain conditions contained in the act, 
relating chiefly to its boundaries, but in consequence of the 
difficulties existing and arising out of the boundary ques- 
tions, Michigan was not admitted as a state until January 
26, 1837. 

With the exception of some private land claims at and 
near Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, which had been con- 
firmed by the general government, none of the public lands 
within the limits of Wisconsin had previous to 1834 been 
disposed of. By an act of Congress approved June 26, 1834, 
it was enacted that 

"All that tract north of the State of Dlinois, west of Lake Michigan, south and south- 
east of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, included in the present Territory of Michigan, 
shall be divided by a north and south line drawn from the northern boundary of Illinois 
along the range of township line next west of Fort Winnebago, to the Wisconsin River, 
and be called, the one on the west side the Wisconsin, and that on the east side the Green 
Bay land districts." 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 189 

Two years later, the Green Bay district was 

'Divided by a line commencing on the western boundary of said district, and running 
thence east, between townships ten and eleven, to the line between ranges seventeen 
and eighteen east; thence north to the line between townshijis tu-elve and thirteen; thence 
east to Lake Bliehigan," 

and the country south of this hne was called the Milwaukee 
land district. Some of the public domain had been sur- 
veyed previous to 1834 and the surveys were afterwards 
rapidly prosecuted, and the permanent ownership of the 
country speedily passed from the government to individ- 
uals, and settlements extended in every direction. 

To provide for the election of a delegate to Congress and 
members of the Legislative Council in that portion of the 
Territory of Michigan not embraced within the limits of the 
state of Michigan, in the contingency that the constitution 
to be framed for the state should not take effect previous to 
the first day of November, 1835, an act was passed on the 
30th of March, 1835, which provided that the election of a 
delegate to Congress and members of the Legislative Coun- 
cil, should be postponed until the first Monday of Novem- 
ber, 1835, on which day it should be held, provided that if 
the constitution to be framed for the state should not take 
effect previous to that day, it should be the duty of the 
Governor to fix the time of holding said election by procla- 
mation on such day as he might deem expedient subsequent 
to the taking effect of said constitution. 

The previous acts of the Territory regulating elections 
were declared to be applicable to the elections provided for 
by this act, and it was made the duty of the governor to 
make such apportionment of the members of the Legislative 
Council to the several counties in the district not embraced 
in the state, as he might deem expedient. The Legislative 
Council was to meet at such time and place as the Governor 
by proclamation might appoint. 

The act also provided for the contingency that a constitu- 
tion should not be adopted, so as to enable the people of 
Michigan to enjoy the benefits of state government pre- 
vious to January 1, ISoG; in which case the provisions of 
the act for a meeting of the Legislative Council in that dis- 
trict of the Territory not within the State, and for the 
election of members thereto, were to be nugatory; and it 
was made the duty of the governor in that event by proc- 
lamation to apportion the members which the several dis- 
tricts east of Lake Michigan are entitled to elect, to the 



190 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

said districts respectively in proportion to population as 
ascertained by the census in the year 1834, and the counties 
in the seventh district lying east of the principal meridian 
should be entitled to one member at the session which 
should commence at Detroit on the 1st Monday of January, 
1836. 

By another provision of this act it was declared that all 
laws which might be in force on the 1st day of May, 1835, 
and not locally inapplicable to the district of the Territory 
not embraced within the state, should be and continue in 
full force and effect in said district after said first day of 
May. 

At the session of the Legislative Council of the Territory 
of Michigan, held at Detroit on the 17th of August, 1835, 
Stevens T. Mason, Secretary and acting Governor, in his 
message, referring to the act of March 30, 1835, said 

" The anticipated contingency will arise by the organization of the contemplated state 
government in November next. The general law regulating these elections requires the 
returns of elections to be made to the secretary of the Territory who with the attorney 
general and treasurer, constitutes the board of canvassers, who are authorized to give a 
certificate of election to the delegate elect. The election, however, occurring before 
the appointment of th=se officers under the territorial government of Wisconsin, it will be 
necessary to create some other board of canvassers to meet the emergency and to em 
power them to issue a certificate of election. Such an amendment of the act of March 
30, 1635, is respectfully suggested for your consideration." 

In accordance with this suggestion of the Governor, an 
act was passed on the 22d of August, fixing the first Mon- 
day of October as the time for holding the election of dele- 
gate to Congress and members of the Legislative Council. 

The act also changed the mode of canvassing, by provid- 
ing that the returns from the other counties west of Lake 
Michigan should be made to the clerk of the county of 
Brown, who should make return thereof to the clerk of the 
Supreme Court of the Territory, at Detroit. 

In pursuance of the act of March 30, 1835, as thus 
amended. Secretary and acting Governor Mason issued a 
proclamation, bearing date August 25, 1835, making a new 
apportionment of — 

" The members of the Legislative Coimcil to the several counties in that district of coun- 
try, not embraced within the limits of the State of Michigan." It was proclaimed that — 

" The counties of Brown and Milwaukee shall constitute the first district, and shall be 
entitled to elective members of the Legislative Council. 

" The county of Iowa shall constitute the second district, and shall be entitled to elect 
■three members. 



WISCONSIN IN A TRxVNSITION STATE — 1835-6. 191 

" The county of Crawford shall constitute the third district, and shall be entitled to elect 
</)te member. 

" The county of Dubuque shall constitute the fourth district, and shall be entitled to 
elect two members. 

"The county of Demoine shall constitute the fifth district, and shall be entitled to elect 
■two members." 

The proclamation also contained the following : 

" And I do further appoint Friday, the 1st day of January, next, for the meeting of the 
said Legislative Council; and the members thereof are hereby required to convene on that 
day at Green Bay, in the county of Brown, or such other place as may be hereafter directed 
by law, in order to proceed in the execution of their official duties." 

Peninsular Michigan had adopted a State constitution and 
formed a State government, with all its branches — execu- 
tive, legislative, and judicial — ready to discharge their 
several official functions; and although it was not admitted 
into the Union until January, 1837, in consequence of its 
boundary troubles, yet it chose to abandon its Territorial 
form of government and assume the powers of a sovereign 
State, as it clearly had a right to under the ordinance of 
1787. A State in the Union if the difficulties with the State 
of Ohio could be satisfactorily settled — at all events a State. 

That portion.of Michigan Territory not within the limits 
of the new State of Michigan, still remained vested with all 
the governmental powers of the Territory of Michigan, 
which embraced the powers of electing a delegate to Con- 
gress, and a Legislative Council of thirteen members. 

Stevens T. Mason continued to remain Secretary of the 
Territory of Michigan, and e.v-officio acting Governor until 
his election as Governor of the State of Michigan, when 
John S. Horner was appointed by the President of the 
United States as his successor. 

The '' contingent remainder" of the ancient Territory of 
Michigan consisted of the counties of Brown, Milwaukee, 
Iowa, Crawford, Dubuque^ and Des Moines, containing a 
population probably not exceeding fifteen thousand. 

Everything was now in readiness for the inhabitants of 
these counties to elect from among themselves a delegate to 
Congress, and to assume to themselves the legislative pow- 
ers of the government of the Territory of Michigan. A very 
lively interest in the elections existed throughout these 
counties, especially in Brown, Iowa, and Dubuque. Al- 
though great interest in the election of members of the Ter- 
ritorial Council existed, the overshadowing interest and 
excitement was in the election of delegate. 



192 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Gen. Jackson was then President of the United States, 
and democracy was supposed to be very largely predomi- 
nant in all the counties. 

The friends of James Duane Doty were the first in the 
field. As early as the 19th of May, 1835, "a large and gen- 
eral meeting of the democratic republicans" was held at 
Green Bay, which determined to organize the democratic 
party, and for that purpose appointed a committee to call a 
general meeting at a future day. 

On the 28th of May the committee issued a call for such a 
meeting, to be held on the 10th of June. At that time a 
meeting was held, at which James Duane Doty was unani- 
mously nominated as the democratic candidate for delegate 
to Congress. 

The meeting declared, that 

"In the life and service of the Hon. J. D. Doty, this meeting finds abundant g^uaranties 
that in the future he will not abandon the principles he has hitherto advocated. " 

Soon after the nomination of Judge Doty, a number of 
the citizens of Brown county, made a call upon Morgan L. 
Martin, of Green Bay, to become a Democratic candidate 
for delegate wliich call he accepted and was announced as a 
candidate. 

In pursuance of a call previously published in the Galena 
newspapers (there were no others in the lead mines), a 
meeting of the citizens of Iowa county was held at Mineral 
Point on the 23d day of May, at which George Wallace 
Jones was nominated as a candidate for delegate. The 
meeting did not profess to be representative of any political 
party. The resolutions which were adopted, however, one 
of which nominated General Jones, were introduced by 
Augustus C. Dodge, who prided himself upon his democ- 
racy, as it was well known that General Jones did. 

The following also appeared in a Galena paper: 

"We are authorized to announce Hon. David Irvtn of Green Bay as the Jackson candi- 
date for Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Michiga,n.— Many voters." 

It was denied that this announcement was with Judge 
Ievin's sanction. At any rate he received but few votes. 

The nomination of Col. Geo. W. Jones was ratified by a 
very large meeting held at Dubuque. 

Thomas Pendleton Burnett of Prairie du Chien was 
nominated as a candidate for the Legislative Council at the 
Mineral Point meeting of May 23d, at which General Jones 
was nominated. Subsequently Mr. Burnett was nomi- 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 193 

nated as candidate for Delegate by a large number of the 
citizens of Iowa county. On the 15th of September, Mr. 
Burnett published in the Galena papers a card, in which 
he accepted the position as a candidate for the Legislative 
Council and refused to be a candidate for Delegate. 

Notwithstanding the action of the Legislative Council of 
Michigan Territory, of the acting Governor and of the peo- 
ple there was an insignificant minority within the new 
state of Michigan, who persisted in the exercise of what 
they claimed to be their rights as citizens of the Territory 
of Michigan. 

William Woodbridge was the candidate for delegate of 
this minority. 

At the time of the election the principal candidates for 
the delegacy were James Duane Doty and Morgan Lewis 
Martin of Green Bay; George Wallace Jones of Iowa 
county and William Woodbridge of Detroit, all professing 
to be democrats. The result was that George W. Jones 
was elected. 

For members of the Legislative Council there were rival 
candidates in most of the counties, and the election excited 
great interest. The result was that the following members 
were elected: 

Broivn and Milwaukee: John Lawe and Wm. B. Slaugh- 
ter of Brown county; George H. Walker, Gilbert Knapp 
and Benjamin H. Edgerton of Milwaukee county. 

Iowa: Wm. S. Hamilton^ James R Vineyard and Robert 
C. Hoard. 

Crawford: Thomas P. Burnett. 

Dubuque: Allen Hill and John Parker. 

Demoine: Joseph B. Teas and Jeremiah Smith. 

After the election the newly appointed secretary, John S. 
Horner, successor of Gov. Mason, thought it proper to 
issue a proclamation as secretary and acting governor, 
which was a cause of great confusion and misunder- 
standing and resulted in an abortive session of the Legisla- 
tive Council. 

The proclamation '' for divers good causes and considera- 
tions," changed the time of the meeting of the Legislative 
Council from the first day of January, 183G, to the first day 
of December, 1835. The proclamation was dated the ninth 
day of November, only twenty-one days before the time 
fixed in it for the meeting. From the nature of the coun- 
1? 



194 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

try, the season of the year, the tardy and uncertain move- 
32ients of the mails, it was impossible for the members to 
receive the necessary information to reach Green Bay by 
the time fixed in the proclamation. The members from 
Des Moines did not learn of the change of time until they 
arrived at Galena about the 20th of December, v^hen on their 
vs^ay to Green Bay to attend the session on the 1st of Janu- 
ary. 

This action of Secretary Horner evoked severe criticism 
of the people and the press, and gave to the Legislative 
Council, at the January session, a theme for severe anim- 
adversion. 

None of the members-elect w^ent to (jreen Bay on the first 
of December, nor did Secretary Horner go there, and if his 
proclamation was intended to prevent a session at that time, 
it was a complete success. 

On Friday, the 1st day of January, 1836, a quorum of the 
members-elect of the Seventh Legislative Council met at 
Green Bay, and organized temporarily by electing Joseph 
B. Teas, President pro tern.; A. G. Ellis, Secretary j)?*o tern.; 
and Levi Sterling, Sergeant-at- Arms pro tern. 

A committee was appointed which examined and reported 
upon the credentials. The oath of office was administered 
to the members present by the Secretary pro tern., acting in 
his capacity as justice of the peace of Brown county. 

Nine members were present — Messrs. Lav^e, Slaughter, 
Knapp, Edgerton, Hamilton, Vineyard, Burnett, Teas, 
and Smith. The absentees wore : Messrs. Walker, of Mil- 
waukee, Hoard, of Iowa, and Hill and Parker, of 
Dubuque. 

The first business of the second day was the election of 
permanent officers. Col. William S. Hamilton was elected 
President, having received eight out of the nine votes. The 
President-elect, in returning his acknowledgments for the 
honor, referred to — 

" The delicate relations we bear to the General Government, and to the Peninsula; the 
numerous and varied interests of our country ; its rapidly increasing population, and our 
own peculiar political existence," 

and counselled the exercise of moderation and caution, at 
the same time firmness. 

Messrs. Ellis and Sterling were elected to fill perma- 
nently the offices to which they had been temporarily 
elected, and Thomas A. B. Boyd, William B. Long, W. H. 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 195 

Bruce, Charles Green, and George W. Lawe were elected 
to subordinate offices. 

Messrs. Burnett and Knapp were appointed a committee 
to wait on John S. Horner, Secretary and acting Governor, 
and inform him that the Council was organized and ready 
to receive any communication he might have to make. 

At the next session, January 4th, the committee reported 
that the}^ had not been able to perform the duty assigned 
them in consequence of the absence of the acting Governor 
from Green Bay. That they had not been able to ascertain 
whether he would arrive, nor did they know of any reason- 
able apology for his absence^ except a communication dated 
at Detroit, December 14th, published in a Green Bay paper, 
v/hich seemed to bear the sanction of his authority, and 
which the committee submitted with their report. 

The substance of the communication is that — 

" No returns of the. Wisconsin election (for delegate) have as yet been furnished to the 
clerk of tlie Supreme Court, at Detroit, according to law. Upon a lean vote of 730 in the 
Peninsula, Wilijam Woodbridge, Esq., has demanded the certificate of election as dele- 
gate. 

'' Being satisfied from inofficial, though credible, evidence, that the Wisconsin delegate 
has received a greater number of votes, the returns of which are now, from some unkno^vn 
cause, outstandmg, the acting Governor has hitherto declined giving a certificate to Mr. 
WooDBRiDGE, Until the receipt of the Wisconsin poll. 

"The people of Wisconsin will at once perceive the necessity of the Acting Governor's 
remaining at Detroit until the delegate-elect is furnished with his certificate. 

"He deems it of vital interest to them that George W. Jones, Esq., their delegate, 
should obtain his seat in Congress at the earliest day practicable. It is decidedly more 
impor-tant, in his opinion, to Wisconsin, that she should at this particular crisis be repre- 
sented in Congress than that there should be a session of the Legislative Council." 

On the same day Mr. Burnett offered a resolution 

"That a committee of three be appointed to inquire into the obstructions whicli prevent 
the Council from proceeding in the regular course of legislation, to the enactment of laws 
for the good government of the Territory, with instructions to report by resolution or 
otherwise." 

Subsequently, on the Gth of January, the resolution was 
adopted and Messrs. Burnett, Teas and Edgerton ap- 
pointed the committee. 

On the 8th of January, the committee submitted a unani- 
mous report, which, after considering the evils endured by 
the inhabitants of that portion of Michigan Territory west 
of Lake Michigan for many years, during which time they 
were ruled "rather as a distant colony than as an integral 
portion of the same government," and commenting upon 
the satisfaction with which they regarded the prospect of a 



196 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

session of a Legislative Council composed exclusively of 
representatives elected by the several counties in that por- 
tion of the Territory, refers to the proclamation of Acting 
Governor Mason, appointing the 1st day of January, for the 
assembling at Green Bay of the Legislative Council. The 
report states that the regular and extra sessions of the Coun- 
cil of 1835 had consumed the whole sixty days, which it is 
authorized by law to sit, during any one year, so that the 
Council could not lawfully hold another session during 
the year 1835, and that Acting Governor Mason in naming 
the 1st day of January, 1836, appointed the earliest day at 
which the Council could by law commence a session. 

The report characterizes the proclamation of Acting Gov- 
ernor HoRNEE directing the Council to assemble on the 1st 
of December 

"As most unwise iu its character, and one that could not have been adopted by a man 
who had any correct knowledge of the laws of the land and the circumstances of the coun- 
try and who felt the least regard for the rights and interests of the people." * * * * "The 
proclamation was wholly nugatory, and only exhibited the folly of attempting that which 
the executive had no jiower to perform." 

It was impossible for the members to meet on the 1st of 
December, ahd the report continues 

"The members of the Council very justly disregarded this proclamation and assembled 
and organized on the 1st day of January, 1836, and have been met by a letter written by 
authority of the Acting Governor to a newspaper editor, in which he tells the people of the 
country that he considers it a matter of more importance that they should be represented 
in Congress than that the Legislative Council should assemble, and that he is remaining at 
Detroit for the purpose of giving to the Delegate elect a certificate of his election." 

The extra session of the Council 

"Passed a law making it the duty of the County Clerks to forward the returns of that 
election to the Clerk of the Supreme Couit, who should give a certificate of the whole vote 
given ; so that whether the returns had been made in due time or not, his excellency had no 
lawful business with the subject, and his apology intended to excuse his absence, appears 
to the committee to be frivolous and insufficient. And the committee can not forbear to 
remark the extraordinary circumstance, of the Governor tendering such an apology to the 
editor of a newspaper instead of the Legislative body which he had called upon to meet 
him at Green Bay. As a co-ordinate branch of the government, without whose presence 
and sanction no law can be passed for the benefit of the people, it is a matter of unfeigned 
regret that the executive officer for no better reasons, determined to remain at Detroit and 
dissappoint all hope of benefit from the present session of the Council." 

" The Acting Governor seems to have failed in every legal measure proper, to continue 
and carry on the operations of the Territorial government for the benefit of the people. 
He himself remains with all the records, books and documents belonging to the executive 
office, within the bounds and jurisdiction of another state, where the laws of the Territory 
are no longer regarded." 

" In the absence of the Governor the Council can do nothing more than to adopt such 
resolutions, memorials, etc., as the circumstances and situation of the country require. 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 197 

Having; done this, they will have exerted the extent of their povrer, and the responsibility 
of having dene nothing more will not rest upon them. That responsibility, weighty and 
serious as it is, will be thrown where it ought to be, upon the Acting Governor of the 
Territory: and the committee consider that the Council would not be true to the high trust 
reposed in it, if it did not represent the facts, and in the name of the people, request the 
President of the United States to relieve the country from the authority of a man who 
seems to be only calculated to bring evil upon it. Entertaining this opinion, the com- 
mittee would respectfully submit to the Council tlie following preamble and resolution 
which they recommend for its adoption." 

Omitting the preamble, the substance of which is con- 
tained in the report, the resolutions declare 

"That John S. Horner, Secretary and Acting Governor of the Territory, has forfeited all 
just claims to the confidence of the people, and from his incapacity and disregard of his 
ofBcial obligations and duties to the country, he is, in the opinion of this Council, unworthy 
of the high office which he fills. 

"That the President of the United States be and is hereby requested in behalf of the 
people of the Territory, to revolve the commission of the said John S. Horner, and to 
appoint some other person better qualified to fulfill the duties of the ofBee." 

The resolutions were immediately considered in com- 
mittee of the whole and debated at great length by Mr. 
Slaughter in opposition and Messrs. Burnett and Hamil- 
ton in favor, when they were adopted by a vote of 8 to 1. 

The resolutions had no effect upon General Jackson. The 
expressed wishes of Horner's wife having, it was said, 
more weight with " Old Hickory " than any resolutions the 
Legislative Council could adopt. 

George H. Walker, of Milwaukee, one of the members 
elect of the Council who did not attend the session, pub- 
lished in the Chicago American, about the first of Febru- 
airy,the following communication: 

" Having just seen a copy of the proceedings of the Legislative Council of Michigan 
Territory, I perceive that the Council have passed strong censures on J. S. Horner. Acting 
Governor and Secretary of said Territory. 

In justice to Gov. Horner, I feel it my duty to state my belief of his intention to have 
gone to Green Bay, for on my passing through Detroit, Mr. Horner communicated to me 
his intention of meeting the Council as soon as possible. He tuen expressed a desire that I 
should remain if convenient at Chicago or Milwaukee until his arrival. I have accord- 
ingly remained here in the dailj- expectation of seeing him, and with the design of afford- 
ing him such facilities on the route as my knowledge of the country would afford, but have 
just learned of a gentleman from Detroit that Gov. H. has been prevented from coming on 
by sickness which no human ingenuity could foresee 

These observations I make public, not with a view to throw the least blame on the 

council for passing a vote of censure. For, had I taken my place at the Council, I would 

have added my own vote to their resolutions, having no other information than such as 

was before them; but lam desirous that all the facts should be known, so that the citizens 

of the Territory may be able to view impartially the explanation which Governor Horner 

will undoubtedly feel it his duty to make. Respectfully, 

Your Obedient Servant, 
Georoe H. Walker." 



198 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

It is not known that Acting Governor Hokneh ever pub- 
lished any explanation. 

A select committee was appointed by resolution to pre- 
pare a memorial to Congress praying that a separate terri- 
torial government in the country west of Lake Michigan, 
commonly called Wisconsin Territory, might be established. 

Mr. Vineyard moved that the committee be instructed 

"To embrace as a part of the wishes of the inhabitants, that the seat of government do 
established on the east bank of the Mississippi Eiver south of the Wisconsin River." 

The resolution and amendment were considered in com- 
mittee of the whole, where Mr. Hamilton (Pres't) moved 
to strike out all after the word " established " and insert the 
words "at Cassville." 

The location of the seat of government for the Territory 
had, ever since the prospect of an independent teri-itorial 
government seemed favorable, excited more interest among 
the few and widely separated communities for which it was 
intended, than any other, and this interest did not cease to 
exist until some time after the erection of the capitol at 
Madison. 

The excitement and intensity of this feeling was devel- 
oped by the introduction of Col. Hamilton's amendment, 
which elicited an animated discussion conducted, however, 
in the best of temper. ^ 

Col. Hamilton in describing the natural beauty of the 
site proposed by him said: 

"Cassville stands on the east bank of the Mississippi surrounded by very pretty scenery. 
The eye can rest on the soft and soothing, the grand and sublime. There, will be found 
everything necessary for the promotion of man's comfort, and the exercise of bis 
energies. In a word nature has done all in her power to make it one of the most delight- 
ful spots in the 'far West'." 

He described its central location, on the supposition that 
the new Territory, and the future state to be formed from it 
would embrace both sides of the Mississippi River, which 
he argued to be probable in order to preserve 

"The happy balance of power which now exists in the Senate of the United States be- 
tween the slave and non-slave-holding states, and so long as our land is affected with the 
evil of slavery, it should be the first wish of every patriot and true American, that this 
balance of power should never be broken, Divide the proposed Territory into two govern- 
ments, and the United States will be driven to the necessity of violating its faitli pledged to. 
the several tribes of Indians they are now removing to the west side of the Mississippi 
in order to make another government where slavery will be admitted, to balance the two 
thus created. (Texas had not then been annexed.) Now Blichigan stands opposed to Ar- 
kansas, and Wisconsin that is to be ere long, will be to Florida." 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 199 

How mistaken are the predictions of the wisest of politi- 
cal prophets liable to prove ! Col. Hamilton but gave voice 
to the general opinion of politicians at that time, and in 
thirty-one months from the time of this session at Green Bay, 
Wisconsin Territory was divided, Iowa Territory organized, 
followed a few years later by the admission of both as 
states in the Union, and the "happy balance of power," was 
destroyed forever. 

To return to the debate: Mr. Slaughter opposed the 
amendment, because it was doubtful whether any new Ter- 
ritory would be organized, and if organized we did not know 
what would be its boundaries; and because the late elec- 
tions were not conducted with reference to this subject, and 
the Council was incapable of representing the views and 
wishes of the people upon it. He thought the people the 
only tribunal competent to judge and decide upon the 
question. He said he had no local influences to prejudice 
him; he was opposed equally to all locations, but would 
place the subject upon the broad principle that it was the 
people's right and interest, and it should be their privilege 
to decide it. 

Mr. Burnett said that if 

"Left to him to fix the seat of government and he could feel at liberty to consult his own 
interests and that of his constituents he would establish it at Prairie du Chieu." 

He described the eligibility and centrality of that point. 
In reply to Col. Slaughter he said 

"If he should postpone the question until the counties on Lake Michigan should have a 
majoritj- in the Council it would never be settled. Those counties have now a greater 
voice liere than they can ever again have upon any equal principle of representation. 
Look at the number of votes given in the different counties and compare them with the 
members elected. Brown and Milwaukee with about three himdred votes have elected 
five members, while Iowa with five huntlred votes has elected but three members. Can the 
gentleman then in reason expect, that the counties on the Lake will ever have a stronger 
voice upon this question than they have now ? I think not." 

If that portion of the present state which in 1835 was in 
the counties of Brown or Milwaukee be called the eastern 
part, and that which was then a part of Iowa or Crawford 
be called the western part, it will be found that by the cen- 
sus of 18S0 the eastern part contained a population of 803,- 
808, and the western part 511,672. 

The amendment was adopted by a vote of 7 to 2, all the 
members voting for it except Messrs. Lawe and Slaughter, 
from Brown county. 

Mr. Slaughter then moved to postpone the resolution in- 



'^00 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

definitely, and expressed disappointment at the votes of the 
members from Milwaukee county. 

Mr. Knapp, in reply, said that he was conscious of having 
not only acted for the best, but in perfect accord with the 
wishes of his constituents, whose minds and feelings he be- 
lieved himself well acquainted with. He believed that the 
general good was always to be preferred before any private 
or local consideration. The site proposed was central, and 
would accommodate the greatest number of the whole; he 
felt no regrets for voting as he had. 

The motion to postpone was lost, and the resolution as 
amended was adopted by the same vote as the amendment. 

On the 9th of January Mr. Slaughter, from the commit- 
tee to which the subject had been referred, reported a 
memorial to Congress on the subject of a new territorial 
government. It gave a graphic description of the country 
west of Lake Michigan and north of the States of Illinois 
and Missouri, and represented it as being unsurpassed for 
fertility of soil, salubrity of climate and commercial facili- 
ties. It represented the population at that time at twenty-five 
thousand, and predicted that in two years it would have 
sufficient population to be entitled, under the ordinance of 
2 787, to admission into the Union as a state. 

It speaks of Cassville as among the most prominent of the 
several flourishing villages on the banks of the Mississippi 
river, and recommends it as the most eligible for the seat of 
government for the proposed Territory. 

It states that — 

"Already have a large portion of our citizens (those west of the Mississippi), upon the 
trial of one for the murder of another, been adjudged to be beyond the jurisdiction of 
the courts of the United States. ************ 

"That ten or twelve thousand freemen, citizens of the United States, living within its 
territory, should be unprotected in their lives and their property by its courts of civil and 
criminal jui-isdiction is an anomaly unparalleled in the annals of republican legislation." 

It was recommended that twenty-five instead of thirteen 
members be authorized to be elected to the Legislative 
Council. 

The extinguishment of the Indian title to, further surveys 
of, and pre-emption rights upon the public land were favor- 
ably alluded to in the memorial, in which the Council 
state — 

" We have deemed it our last and best policy to ask the intervention of the National aid, 
to give us a new, efficient political existence." 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1885-6. 201 

The memorial was immediately considered in committee 
of the whole, when, on motion of Mr. Hamilton, some 
amendments were adopted, presenting more prominently the 
interests of the people west of the Mississippi river, as well 
also as those of the lead mines. 

The chief interest dev^eloped in the discussion of the 
memorial was upon an amendment offered by Mr. Burnett, 
and an amendment thereto offered by Col. Hamilton. 

Mr, Burnett moved to amend the memorial by insert- 
ing— 

"That in the organization of the Territorial government the offices of Governor 'and 
Superintendent of InJian Affairs may be separated, and that the people of said Territory 
be permitted to elect their Governor and Secretary." 

Col. Hamilton moved to strike out all after the word 
" separated," (the words in italics). 

In support of his amendment to the amendment, Col. 
Hamilton said : 

"• He had taken this course, not because he did not think the people would act correctly 
in choosing a proper person to fill this office. AYe are the property of the Government, 
and it is not reasonable to suppose that they will give up all control of us. If the office is 
made elective, then all authority of the General Government is at an end, and he thought 
that by asking that wliich he deemed unreasonable, we were endangering the whole," 

Mr, Burnett, in reply, said : 

" The gentleman says we are the jiroperty of the United States, and they have the right 
to do with us as they please. I deny the correctness of this doctrine; I never can sub- 
scribe to its principles. I deny that the people are lawfull3' the subjects of property in any 
government. The gentleman has referred to the clause in the Constitution, which author- 
izes Congress to make needful rules and regulations 'respecting the teri-itory and other 
property of the United States, and says that it is the only constitutional authority for es- 
tablishing ten-itorial governments; and because the word propertj- is tliere used, in con- 
junction with territory, the people of the territorj' are the property of the United States. 
Sir, territory and property never can be made to mean the people. Territory has a geo- 
graphical meaning and relates to the soil of the country ; but because the United States 
have the property of the soil, it does not therefore follow that they have H|jlimited juris- 
diction over the people also. Property and jurisdiction are not co-relevant terms. * * * 

" This country was a part of the confederacy before the adoption of the Constitution. 
Its rights have never been forfeited. Tliose rights are secured by the ordinance of 1787 
so firnily that Congress itself can not take them away." 

In his rejoinder, Col. Hamilton said 

" I come not here to engage in phillipics against any individual or to court the people— 
I came to do my duty. When the gentleman denies we are the property of the United 
States he denies our very existence. He forgets the only clause of tlie constitution which 
gives Congress power to possess and provide a government for the country, the language 
of which is 'Territory and other property.' We are therefore the property of the United 
States, and are we to supi>ose that the government will divest itself of the power over its 
property. If the people elect the governor, the government have no right to remove 



202 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

him. He may violate the laws, sacrifice the interest of the general government and they 
have no power to control him." 

The memorial was then adopted. 

On the 11th of January a memorial to Congress was 
adopted asking for the division of the Green Bay land dis- 
trict and the establishment of a new land district. 

On the 12th of January an animated debate took place 
upon a resolution offered on the previous day by Mr. Vine- 
yard, that the governor be requested to call the next Legis- 
lative Council to meet at Cassville. 

Mr, Slaughter moved to strike out "Cassville" and 
insert " Fond du Lac." 

Mr. Burnett and Col. Hamilton opposed the amendment, 
and on taking the question it was lost. 

Mr. Knapp proposed to substitute " Racine " for Cassville, 
which was sustained by Mr. Slaughter;, but the amend- 
ment was not agreed to. 

Mr. Slaughter now suggested that the law required the 
Council to meet at Green Bay. He did not think it com- 
petent for the executive to alter the place. 

Mr. Hamilton concurred with Mr. Slaughter and moved 
that the committee rise and report against the resolution, 
which was done and the resolution lost. 

On the loth of January Mr. Edgerton from the com- 
mittee on internal improvements, reported a memorial to 
Congress asking for 

"An appropriation sufficient to cover the expense of surveying all the necessary harbors 
on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and also for the construction of two light houses; 
one at Milwaukee and the other at Root River." 

Also " for the survey and examination of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and for the 
removal of the obstructions at the rapids in the Mississippi River." 

The attention of Congress was also called to 

"The opening and building of the road from Chicago to Green Bay', the surveys of 
which were completed last season." 

The memorial set forth that 

"The subject of constructing a railroad from Lake Michigan, passing through the mining 
district, terminating at or near Cassville on tb.e Mississippi River, is one which claims the 
attention of all who take an interest in the prosperity and growth of our country; and we 
■would pray your honorable body to make provision for the survey and examination of the 
route." 

It also asked Congress 

" To declare Kavarino at the head of Green Bay, and Cassville on the Mississippi River, 
ports of entry." 

Mr. Slaughter made an ineffectual effort to have in- 
serted among the surveys asked for 



WISCONSIN IN A TRANSITION STATE — 1835-6. 203 

"A survey of the Manitowoc river to its somce, with a view to ascertain the practicabil- 
ity of connecting Lake Michigan and Lake Winnebago by slack-water navigation, and a 
canal of about two and a half miles." 

The memorial was adopted without material amendment. 

A resolution introduced by Mr. Vineyard, that the print- 
ers to the Council be instructed to print five hundred cop- 
ies of the journal was adopted. 

At an early day of the session, Hon. James D. Doty had 
been appointed Fiscal Agent of the Territory without any 
express understanding- as to the extent to which he was to 
provide for the expenses of the Council. As the close of the 
session was approaching, it appeared that some members of 
the Council supposed that Judge Doty was to defray all of 
the expenses, which would probably be $2,000 or $3,000, 
while he had expected only to defray the necessary contin- 
gent expenses, amounting to about $500. 

On the last day of the session. Judge Doty addressed a 
communication to the Council stating his understanding of 
the extent of expenses he was to defray, and his perfect 
willingness to make the advance, as originally proposed by 
him, or to decline the situation. 

A resolution was then introduced 

"That the terms proposed by James D. Doty, upon which he will perform the duties of 
Fiscal Agent for the Council, are satisfactory; and that it is the wish of the Council that 
he may accept the appointment of Fiscal Agent." 

After considerable debate, in which Judge Doty's motives 
were assailed and defended the resolution was adopted. 

On the 7th of January, Mr. Vineyard introduced a reso- 
lution that the Council adjourn siue die, on Saturday the 
9th of January. It was laid on the table. 

On the 11th of January, Mr. Vineyard again offered a 
resolution that the Council adjourn on the 12th. This reso- 
lution was also laid on the table. 

On the next day, the 12tli, he again offered a resolution 
that the Council adjourn on the lith. On motion of Mr. 
Slaughter it was amended by substituting Friday the 15th. 

After a resolution had been reported by the committee on 
expenses, and adopted by the Council, that there should bo 
paid by the Fiscal Agent, from the sum approi)riated by 
Congress for defraying the contingent expenses of the Leg- 
islative Council for the year 1836, various specific sums to 
the members, printers, officers etc., amounting to the aggre- 
gate sum of $2,371.72; 



204 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

And after the report of the committee on enroUment as 
correctly enrolled of the memorials and resolutions adopted 
by the Council; 

And after the introduction, discussion and passage of the 
resolution in relation to the Fiscal Agent, the seventh and 
last session of the Legislative Council of Michigan Terri- 
tory, on Friday the 15th day of January, 1836, adjourned 
sine die. 



CHAPTER XVL 

ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 

The Indian possessory right of occupancy of that part of 
the Territory south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox 
Rivers having been extinguished by treaty, the surveys of 
the public lands were prosecuted with vigor soon after the 
close of the Black Hawk war, and that part of the Terri- 
tory became subject to settlement. 

As previously stated, this part of the Territory was in 
June, 1834, divided into two land districts the "Wisconsin" 
district, with land office at Mineral Point, and the " Green 
Bay " district, with land office at Green Bay. The Green 
Bay district was subsequently divided and the " Milwaukee" 
district established with land office at Milwaukee, contain- 
ing the ten southern tawnships west of range eighteen, 
and the twelve east of range seventeen. 

The first public sale of lands was at Mineral Point on the 
10th day of November, 1834, in pursuance of the proclama- 
tion of the President, dated July 7, 1834, by which all the 
lands south of the Wisconsin River and west of the fourth 
principal meridian, were offered for sale, corresponding 
with the townships now forming Grant county. 

On the Gth of May, 1 835, the President issued two other 
proclamations for public land sales; one for sales at Green 
Bay on the 17th and the 31st days of August, the other for 
sales at Mineral Point on the 7th and 21st days of Septem- 
ber, 1835. 

These sales brought into market all the lands in the pres- 
ent counties of Iowa, La Fayette, Green, Dane, Manitowoc, 



ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 205 

Kewaunee, Calumet, so much of Brown, Outagamie and 
Winnebago as is east of the Fox River and north of Lake 
Winnebago: Rock county, except seven towns on the east- 
ern side of it; the towns of Lowville, Wyocena, Marcellon, 
Portage, Pacific, Dekorra and Arlington in Columbia 
county; the towns cf Kingston and Marquette in Green 
Lake county and that small part of Marquette county south 
of Fox River. Fractional townships seven, eight, nine and 
ten, of range 22, in Milwaukee and Ozaukee counties, em- 
bracing almost the entire city of Milwaukee, were also of- 
fered at the sale held at Green Bay on the 31st of August. 

The lands south of Fox river, which were not offered at 
these sales, embraced the entire counties of Kenosha, Ra- 
cine, Walworth, Waukesha, Jefferson, Washington, Dodge, 
Fond du Lac, and Sheboygan, and a part of the counties of 
Winnebago, Green Lake, Columbia, and Rock. 

By a proclamation of the President of August 15, 1835, an- 
other sale was held at Green Bay on the IGth day of Novem- 
ber, at which all the lands in Sheboygan county, five 
townships in Fond du Lac, two in Washington, and four in 
Ozaukee counties were offered for sale. 

By the second section of an act of Congress, approved 
May 29, 1830, it was provided that when two or more per- 
sons were settled on the same quarter section it was to be 
equally divided between the two first actual settlers, and 
each should be entitled to a pre-emption of eighty acres of 
land elsewhere in the same land district, so as not to interfere 
with other settlers having a right of preference. 

Such rights of pre-emption "elsewhere" were called 
" floats," and were in very great demand by speculators in 
lands, for the purpose o-f securing desirable locations in ad- 
vance of the public sales, and many town sites, supposed at 
the time to be very valuable, w^ere entered with these 
" jaoats." 

The pre-emption laws in force at the time of these land 
sales in August and September, 1 835, required that the set- 
tler, to entitle him to a pre-emption right, should have culti- 
vated some part of his land in the year 1833. 

In a great many instances, settlers had gone upon lands 
offered by these proclamations, with their families, in good 
faith, to make homes for themselves and their children, in 
the hope that the pre-emption laws would be extended to 
them. But as the bill for this purpose had failed they were 



206 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

without the protection of any pre-emption law, and a serious 
and widespread fear existed that they would be deprived of 
their hard-earned possessions by the greed of heartless spec- 
ulators. 

But when the time for action arrived at the Green Bay 
Bales, a spirit of justice and honorable dealing proved to be 
paramount to the demands of grasping rapacity. A meet- 
ing of the settlers was held, a committee appointed to deter- 
mine the justice and good faith of the claims of settlers to 
their respective " claims," and in every case the decision of 
the committee was respected by the speculators, many of 
whom had come from the eastern cities to purchase lands 
offered at the public sales, and some probably expecting to 
bid upon the " claims" of some of these settlers; but all the 
settlers were allowed to purchase their " claims" at the mini- 
mum price. The good feeling which resulted was evidenced 
by the following card, published at the time : 

" The settlers of Milwaukee tender their most cordial acknowledgments to the gentle- 
men who attended the land sales for the handsome manner in which their claims were 
regarded. And they take pleasure in saying that no case occurred which was not justly 
entitled to the consideration which it received. 

James Sanderson, B. "W. Finch, 

James Clyman, T. C. Dousman, 

George H. Walker, Samuel Brown, 

Otis Hubbard." 

There was but little conflict between the settlers and spec- 
ulators at the Mineral Point land sales, and in all cases the 
just rights of the settlers were respected. 

It is difficult for those of a generation living half a cen- 
tury after these events to appreciate the importance 
attached to them by those whose interests and feelings were 
so deeply involved. 

The land sales being over, the next subjects to attract the 
attention and excite the interest of the early settlers were 
territorial and congressional legislation. 

The last authoritative legislation affecting the inhabitants 
of the territory west of Lake Michigan and prior to the 
organization of the Territory of Wisconsin, July 4, 1836, 
was that of the sixth Legislative Council of Michigan Ter- 
ritory at Detroit in January, 1835, and at the special 
session in August of that year. 

The seventh Legislative Council, which met at Green Bay 
on the 1st of January, 1836, in pursuance of the proclama- 



ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 097 

tion of Acting Governor Mason, was unable, owing to the 
non-appearance of Secretary Horner, acting governor who 
had succeeded Governor Mason, to transact any legislative 
business except to adopt resolutions and memorials. After 
being most pleasantly entertained for tv*^o weeks by the 
citizens of Green Bay, who have ever been famous for 
their hospitality, the council adjourned sine die, and the 
members wended their way in the midst of winter; over a 
country where settlements were so infrequent that " camp- 
ing out " was a necessity; to their respective homes in the 
counties of Milwaukee, Iowa, Crawford, and Des Moines. 

While Acting Governor Horner was remaining at De- 
troit to see that George W. Jones, the delegate in Congress 
elect, was not prevented from obtaining his seat by the 
efforts of Mr. Woodbridge, as stated in Governor Horner's 
communication to a Green Bay paper bearing date Decem- 
ber U, Gen. Jones was at Washington representing his 
constituents. 

Upon the assembling of Congress on the 7th of December, 
Mr. Jones appeared with the delegates from the other ter- 
ritories, was qualified and took his seat without opposition 
or even any question as to his right to it. 

On the ISth of January, 183G, Mr. Storer of Ohio pre- 
sented sundry affidavits and certificates relative to the late 
election of delegate for the Territory of Michigan vhich 
were referred to the committee of elections. 

On the 1st of March he presented documents relating to 
the same election which had the same reference. 

These " affidavits and certificates " and these " documents" 
are supposed to have related to the right of Mr. Woodbridge 
to the seat, although it is not so stated, and it does not 
appear from the journal of that session that he ever form- 
ally presented any claim to the seat. 

The committee of elections made no report and Mr. Jones 
continued to occupy the seat through the entire session 
without any question having been made as to his right 
to it. 

The most important measure of the session, so far as con- 
cerned the interests of the inhabitants of Michigan Terri- 
tory west of Lake Michigan, was an act " establishing the 
Territorial Government of Wisconsin." 

This bill having passed the senate, where it originated, 
was read the first and second times in the house of Repre- 



208 HISTORY OF THE TEEEITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

sentatives on the 30th of March and referred to the com- 
mittee of the whole on the state of the Union. 

On the 2nd of April, on motion of Mr. Patton of Vir- 
ginia, the rules in relation to the priority of business were 
suspended, for the purpose of considering the bill, and the 
house then resolved itself into committee of the whole on 
the state of the Union, and reported that they had /3ome to 
no resolution thereon. 

On the 7th of April it was again considered and reported 
to the House with amendments, when on motion of Mr. 
Jones, the delegate, it was ordered postponed until to-mor- 
row and made the special order from 11 o'clock A. M, until 
1 o'clock P. M. 

When the bill came up for consideration the ne xt day 
(April 8th) the first question was upon concurring in the 
first amendment reported by the committee of the whole on 
the state of the Union, which was to strike out an appropri- 
ation of ten thousand acres of the public lands for the 
purpose of building a capitol, which was in the bill as it 
passed the Senate and inserting in lieu of it twenty thou- 
sand dollars for the same purpose. 

Mr. Bond of Ohio moved to amend the amendment by 
reducing the amount from twenty thousand to twelve thou- 
sand five hundred dollars which was lost by a vote of 60 to 
117, and the amendment for twenty thousand dollars was 
then adopted. 

Mr. Cave Johnson of Tennessee then moved to amend the 
bill by striking out the 17th section, which appropriated 
five thousand dollars for "the purchase of a library for the 
accommodation of the Assembly and of the Supreme Court." 
The motion was lost. 

The bill as it passed the Senate provided that the salary 
of the Governor should be two thousand dollars, and fifteen 
hundred dollars as Superintendent of Indian Affairs. Mr. 
Underwood of Kentucky moved to strike out this provision 
and insert that the Governor should receive an annual sal- 
ary of two thousand five hundred dollars for his services as 
Governor and as Superintendent of Indian Afifairs. 

Mr. Vinton of Ohio moved to amend by reducing the 
amomit from two thousand five hundred to two thousand. 
This was lost and the amendment offered by Mr. Under- 
wood was agreed to, which was the second amendment 
adopted to the Senate bill. 



ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 209 

Mr. Hardin of Kentucky moved to strike out five thou- 
sand in the appropriation for a Hbrary and insert tAvo 
thousand, which motion was decided in the negative. 

The boundary of the Territory as described in the Senate 
bill after running north from the northeast corner of the 
state of Illinois through the middle of Lake Michigan to a 
point in the middle of said lake and opposite the main chan- 
nel of Green Bay, run thence "through said channel and 
Green Bay to the mouth of the Menomonee river," and 
thence up that river, etc. 

Mr. Howell of Ohio offered an amendment to strike out 
"Green Bay to the mouth of the Menomonee river, etc.," and 
insert 

"From the d middle of Green Bay to the head of Chocolate river thence down said river 
to Lake Superior, thence due north to the territorial hne and thence with said line, etc.'" 

The effect of this amendment, if it had been adopted, would 
have been to deprive Michigan of a principal part of its 
northern peninsula, and leave it a part of the proposed Ter- 
ritory of Wisconsin. The amendment of Mr. Howel was, 
however, lost and the boundaries contained in the Senate 
bill remained intact. 

A third amendment of the Senate bill Avas adopted, which 
as it was proposed by a committee of the whole on the state 
of the Union, does not appear in the journal. It was prob- 
ably unimportant as it was concurred in by the Senate. 

The bill was then read a third time and passed and sent 
to the Senate for concurrence in the three amendments. 

It came up in the Senate, on the 12th of April, when the 
first and the third amendments were concurred in, and the 
second, in relation to the compensation of the Governor was 
disagreed to, and the bill returned to the House. 

Mr. Patton moved on the 14th of April, that the House 
recede from its second amendment. This motion was lost 
by a vote of 58 to 135. 

Mr. Cave Johnson moved that the House insist upon this 
amendment, which was agreed to. 

A committee of conference was then appointed by the re- 
quest of the Senate, consisting of Messrs. Buchanan, AVeb- 
STER and Shepley on the part of the Senate and Messrs. 
Patton, Kennon and Casey on the part of the House. 

The result was that the Senate on the ISth of x\pril, re- 
ceded from its disagreement to the second amendment, the 
effect of which was the final passage of the bill by both 
14 



210 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Houses. It was approved by President Andrew Jackson 
on the 20th of April, when it became a law. 

Although the few and widely separated inhabitants of that 
portion of the country which was organized into the Terri- 
tory of Wisconsin, could not be said to have ever been with- 
out some kind of civil government, it was not until the 4th 
day of July, 1836, when this act of Congress passed April 
20, 1836, took effect, that the advantages and protection 
of civil government w^ere practically brought within 
their reach. The due exercise of the three essential, 
and only important elements of civil power — legislative, 
judicial and executive — was adequately provided for; and 
in a republican form, except to the extent that it was limited 
by the reserved power of the disapproval of laws, by Con- 
gress. 

Boundaries — The Territory was bounded east by a line 
drawn from the northeast corner of the State of Illinois, 
through the middle of Lake Michigan, to a point in the 
middle of said lake and opposite the main channel of Green 
Bay, and through said channel and Green Bay to the mouth 
of the Menomonee river; thence through the middle of the 
main channel of said river, to that head of said river nearest 
to the Lake of the Desert; thence in a direct line to the 
middle of said lake; thence through the middle of the main 
channel of the Montreal river to its mouth; thence with a 
direct line across Lake Superior to where the territorial line 
of the United States touches said lake northwest; thence on 
the north with the said territorial line, to the White Earth 
river; on the west, by a line from the said boundary line, 
following down the middle of the main channel of White 
Earth river, to the Missouri river, and down the middle of 
the main channel of the Missouri river, to a point due west 
from the northwest corner of the State of Missouri (at that 
time the western boundary of Missouri was the "meridian 
line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas 
river," but by an act passed subsequently at the same ses- 
sion, it was extended to the Missouri river); and on the 
south from said point due east to the northwest corner of the 
State of Missouri, and thence with the boundaries of the 
States of Missouri and Illinois, as already fixed by acts of 
Congress. 

The executive power was vested in a Governor, who held 
his office for three years, subject to removal by the Presi- 



ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 211 

dent, was required to reside in the Territory, was com- 
mander-in-chief of the miHtia, was to perform the duties and 
receive the emoluments of Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 
was required to approve all laws before they should take 
effect, had the pardoning power for offenses against the 
laws of the Territory, and might reprieve for offenses against 
the laws of the United States, until the decision of the Pres- 
ident could be made known; he was to commission all 
territorial officers and take care that the laws were faith- 
fully executed. His salary as Governor and Superintendent 
of Indian Affairs was two thousand five hundred dollars 
annually. 

A Secretary of the Territory was provided for who was 
to reside in the Territory; his term of office was four years, 
subject to removal by the President. His duties were to 
record and preserve all the laws and proceedings of the 
Legislative Assembly, and all the acts and proceedings of 
the Governor in his executive department, and transmit one 
copy to the President of the United States, and two copies 
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives for the use 
of Congress. He was authorized and required to execute 
and perform all the duties and powers of the Governor, 
(luring any vacancy caused by his death, removal or resig- 
nation or during his necessary absence. The annual salary 
of the Secretary was twelve hundred dollars. 

The legislative power was vested in the Governor and a 
Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly consisted 
of a Council and House of Representatives elected by the 
qualified voters. The council consisted of thirteen mem- 
bers whose terms of service were four years. The House of 
Representatives consisted of twenty-six members whose 
term of service was two years. The compensation of each 
was three dollars per day and three dollars for every twenty 
miles travel both ways. 

The first election was to be held at such time and place as 
the Governor should appoint and direct. Previous to the 
first election the Governor was to cause a census to be made 
by the sheriffs of the several counties of the inhabitants of 
each. The Governor was to declare the number of mem- 
bers of the Council and House of Representatives to which 
each of the counties were entitled and declare who was 
elected. The persons thus elected were to meet at such 
place on such day as the Governor should appoint, and 



212 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

thereafter the time, place and manner of holding and con- 
ducting all elections, and the apportioning of the represent- 
atives in the several counties to the Council and House of 
Representatives, was to be prescribed by law, as well as the 
day of the annual commencement of the sessions of the 
Legislative Assembly, but no session in any year could 
exceed the term of seventy-five days. 

Every free, white male citizen of the United States above 
the age of twenty-one years, who was an inhabitant of the 
Territory at the time of its organization, was entitled to 
vote at the first election, and was eligible to any office in 
the Territory; but the qualifications of voters at all subse- 
quent elections was to be such as should be determined by 
the Legislative Assembly; Provided, that the right of 
suffrage should be exercised only by citizens of the United 
States. 

The sixth section of the organic act declared 

"That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of leg- 
islation, but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil; no 
tax shall be imposed upon the property of the United States, nor shall the lands or other 
property of non-residents be taxed higher than the lands or other property of residents. 
All the laws of the Governor and Legislative Assembly shall be submitted to, and, if 
disapproved by the Congress of the United States, the same shall be null and of no 
effect." 

The governor was to nominate and by and with the 
advice and consent of the Legislative Council, appoint all 
judicial officers, justices of the peace, sheriffs and all militia 
officers, except those of the staff. Clerks of the courts 
were to be appointed by the judges thereof, but township 
officers and all other county officers, were to be elected by 
the people in such manner as might be provided by the 
Governor and Legislative Assembly. 

The judicial power of the Territory was vested in a Su- 
preme Court, District Courts, Probate Courts, and justices 
of the peace. The Supreme Court was to consist of a chief 
justice and two associate justices, to hold their offices dur- 
ing good behavior, and were each to receive an annual sal- 
ary of eighteen hundred dollars. The Territory was to be 
divided into three judicial districts, and a district court to 
be held in each by one of the judges of the Supreme Court 
at such times and places as might be prescribed by law. The 
jurisdiction of all the courts was to be as limited by law, 
except that justices of the peace should not have jurisdic- 
tion in any matter where the title or boundaries of land 



ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 213 

might be in dispute, nor where the debt or sum claimed ex- 
ceeded fifty dollars. Writs of error and appeals in chancery- 
causes were allowed in all cases from the district courts to 
the Supreme Court, and from the Supreme Court to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, when the amount in 
controversy exceeded one thousand dollars. The district 
courts were to have and exercise the same jurisdiction in 
all cases arising under the Constitution and laws of the 
United States as is vested in the circuit and district courts 
of the United States. An attorney and a marshal for the 
Territory were to be appointed, each for the term of four 
years, subject to removal by the President. 

The Governor, Secretary, judges, attorney, and marshal 
were to be nominated, and by and with the consent of the 
Senate appointed by the President of the United States. 
Each was to take an official oath, which was to be filed with 
the Secretary of the Territory. 

There was to be appropriated annually three hundred and 
fifty dollars to defray the contingent expenses of the Terri- 
tory, to be expended by the Governor, and a sufficient sum 
to be expended by the Secretary of the Territory, to defray 
the expenses of the Legislative Assembly, the printing of 
the laws, and other incidental expenses. 

Not only did the organic act provide, as has been previ- 
ously mentioned, that the inhabitants of the Territory 
should be entitled to enjoy all the rights, privileges and ad- 
vantages granted and secured to the people of the territory 
northwest of the River Ohio by the articles of compact con- 
tained in the ordinance of 1787, but that they should also be 
entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities there- 
tofore granted and secured to the Territory of Michigan and 
its inhabitants. It also provided that the laws of the Terri- 
tory of Michigan should be extended over it, so far as the 
same should not be incompatible with the organic act, sub- 
ject, however, to alteration, modification, and repeal. And 
further, that the laws of the United States be extended 
over, and should be in force in the Territory of Wisconsin 
so far as they might be applicable. 

The Legislative Assembly was to hold its first session at 
such time and place as the Governor should appoint, and 
that the Governor and Legislative Assembly should there- 
after locate and establish the seat of government at such 
place as they might deem eligible, subject thereafter to be 



214 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

by them changed. Twenty thousand dollars were appro- 
priated to defray the expenses of erecting public buildings 
at the seat of government. 

The act provided for the election of a delegate to the 
House of Representatives, to serve for the term of two 
years, who should be entitled to the same rights and privi- 
leges as had been granted to the delegates from the several 
Territories to the House of Representatives. The first elec- 
tion was to be held at such time and place or places as the 
Governor should appoint, who was to give a certificate to 
the person elected. 

Suitable provision was made for the transfer of pending 
judicial proceedings from the courts of Michigan to those 
of Wisconsin. 

An appropriation of five thousand dollars was made for 
the purchase of a library for the accommodation of the As- 
sembly and of the Supreme Court. 

With these provisions of the organic act and the subse- 
quent action of the President in the appointment of the ter- 
ritorial officers for which it provided, the civil government 
of the Territory of Wisconsin was in complete readiness to 
be set in operation on the 4th day of July, the day on which 
by the act, it was to be organized. 

To summarize the several different periods of time from 
the early part of the sixteenth century to the organization 
of the Territory of Wisconsin in 1836, during which the 
right of civil government has been claimed or exercised by 
different powers, the facts stated in this and the preceding 
chapter, present these results. 

For more than a century, from 1512 to 1G27, the only claim 
to the right of civil jurisdiction over the domain of the pres- 
ent state of Wisconsin, which any governmental power pre- 
tended to possess, was the claim of Spain derived from the 
discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon. This claim was, 
however, entirely ideal, as during that period no subject of 
Spain ever saw any portion of this domain. 

From 1G27 to 17G2, civil jurisdiction over the Territory 
was claimed, and to a considerable extent exercised by 
France. 

By the treaty of February 10, 1763, resulting from the 
war between France and England, the right of civil juris- 
diction passed from the former to the latter, and civil juris- 
diction accompanied by actual occupancy of the posts on 



ORGANIZATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY. 215 

the northern frontier was maintained by Great Britain un- 
til 179(3, although the last thirteen years of this jurisdiction 
was in open violation of the treaty of 1783. 

During- the Revolutionary war and thereafter until the 
formation of the Northwest Territory in 1787, jurisdiction 
was claimed by Virginia. This claim was practically exer- 
cised over and acquiesced in by the inhabitants of that por- 
tion of the territory now forming the states of Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois while those in the remaining portion were com- 
pelled to recognize the power of Great Britain. 

From 1787 to 1800 the right of civil government was vested 
by the Ordinance of 1787 in the territorial government 
which it established; but owing to the jurisdiction which 
was maintained by Great Britain, the right was not practi- 
cally exercised within the present state of Wisconsin until 
179G. 

From May 7, 1800, to January 11, 1805, jurisdiction over 
the domain of the state of Wisconsin was vested in and ex- 
ercised by the Territory of Indiana. 

From January 11, 1805, until February 3, 1800, by the Ter- 
ritory of Michigan. 

From February 3, 1809, until December 3, 1818, by the 
Territory of Illinois. 

From December 3, 1818, until July 4, 183G,the Territory of 
Michigan again had and exercised the jurisdiction. 

Hitherto our attempts at historiography have resulted 
only in the exposition of the history of Florida, Louisiana, 
Virginia, the Northwestern Territory, and the Territories of 
Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, so far as that portion of 
them which is now known as W^isconsin, was affected. 

An epoch is now reached from which a new historical 
departure is to be taken, and the story is to be told of the 
settlement, development and progress of the Territory of 
W^isconsin, from its organization as a distinct territorial 
government in 183G, to its admission into the Union as a 
sovereign independent state in 1848. This period of twelve 
years is highly interesting, as being that in which the polit- 
ical character and material features of the future State 
were molded and crystallized. 



216 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 



CHAPTER XVII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1833. 

The early organization of the new Territory of Wisconsin 
was, during the years 1835 and the early part of 1836, clearly 
foreseen as one of the inevitable results of the formation of 
the independent State of Michigan. The fragmentary Ter- 
ritory of Michigan thus left, was not designed and was illy 
adapted to the wants of the inhabitants of the country w^est 
of the lake. 

The organization of the new Territory was delayed until 
the question of the boundaries of the State of Michigan 
could be acted upon by Congress, and so soon as it was 
known what that action would be, it was anticipated by the 
act to organize the Territory of Wisconsin, which was passed 
April 20, 1836, although the act to provide for the admission 
of the State of Michigan into the Union was not passed until 
twenty-five days later. 

The scenes and events successively occurring during the 
twelve years of the existence of the Territory of Wisconsin, 
which were so commonplace at the time of their occurrence 
as to make but little impression upon those immediately 
connected with them, may now possess some historic in- 
terest to those who had no personal knowledge of them, if 
not create a revived interest in those who participated in 
them; which can only be gratified by a reference to the 
archives of the State Historical Society. 

The spirit of migration, the desire for change, is believed 
to be the fundamental element, the inspiring cause of and 
chief reason for the wonderful progress which has marked 
the advance of American civilization, especially in the 
states formed out of the Northwest Territory. 

Whatever the cause, the historical fact is now acknowl- 
edged, that the rapidity of settlement in Wisconsin for the 
fifteen years next succeeding 1835, was aliuost, if not quite, 
unprecedented in the settlement of new states. Previous 
to 1835 much the largest proportion — about two thirds — of 
the population of the Territory was to be found in Iowa, 
county. They had, however, generally come in search of 
lead, and nearly all with the expectation of soon getting 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 217 

rich and returning to the homes they had left hehind them. 
It was emphatically a floating population. Many, however 
— some attracted by "success, and some compelled by the 
necessities resulting from ill-luck — remained, and became 
permanent inhabitants of the country, which they had vis- 
ited only as an adventurous experiment. 

After the Indian right of occupancy on the lands south 
and east of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers had been extin- 
guished, the lands had been surveyed and offered for sale, 
which to a limited extent occurred in November, 1834, and 
more extensively in August and September, 1835, the pur- 
poses of most of those who came with no fixed intention of 
remaining became changed. They purchased land and be- 
came permanently identified with the country; and the 
same infiuences which were thus operating upon those who 
were already here, produced a like effect upon large num- 
bers possessed of the migratory spirit, but whose feet had 
never trod the soil west of Lake Michigan, and induced 
them also to become permanent inhabitants of the new Ter- 
ritory, 

Another class, who were characterized by the settlers as 
" speculators," visited the country, either personally or by 
agents, in great numbers and purchased very large quanti- 
ties of the choicest of the public lands, which had been 
offered for sale in 1834 and 1835. These purchases were 
almost exclusively made on speculation, and with no pur- 
pose of occupancy, but solely with the expectation of selling 
the lands at a future period at a greatly increased price. 
The effect of these speculations was greatly to retard and 
prevent the occupancy of the country by perruanent inhabi- 
tants. 

Some idea n.ay be formed of the magnitude of this land 
speculation from the fact, which the records of the General 
Land Office show, that the total sales of the Government 
lands in Wisconsin previous to December, 31, 1S36, amounted 
to 878,014 acres, of which as much as 000,000 acres were 
probably sold to speculators. 

The correctness of this estimate is confirmed by the fact 
that the total amount of sales during the years 1837 and 1838, 
after the spirit of speculation had ceased, amounted to only 
■oG0,919 acres, although the population during that period 
had more than doubled. 

The wild spirit of speculation which pervaded the whole 



218 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

country in 1836 is within the present recollection of the older 
persons of the present generation. The currency of the 
country, which consisted mainly of the notes of state banks, 
was abnormally expanded. The Eeceivers of the Land 
offices were authorized to receive the notes of many of the 
state banks in payment for the public lands, and appear- 
ances seemed to indicate that the entire body of the public 
domain would soon be exchanged for bank credits and paper 
money, and would be absorbed by speculators to the serious 
injury of actual settlers and emigrants. 

In this condition of things, the specie circular, as it was 
called, of Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, was 
issued by the direction of President Andrew Jackson, which 
had the effect to soon arrest the land speculating mania. 

This circular was issued on the 11th July, 183G, and recited, 
that — 

"In consequence of complaints which had been made of frauds, speculations and monop- 
olies in the purchase of the public land, and the aid which was said to effect these objects 
by excessive bank credits and through bank drafts and bank deposits, and in consequence 
of the general evil influence likely to result to the public interests, and especially the safety 
of the great amount of money m the Treasury, and the sound condition of the currency of 
the country from the further exchange of the national domain in this manner, and 
chiefly for bank credits and paper money;" 

and then instructed the Receivers of Public Money, — 

"After the 15th day of August next to receive in payment of the public lands nothing 
except what is directed by the existing laws, viz.: Gold and Silver and in the proper cases 
Virginia land scrip; provided, that till the 15th day of December next the same indulgences 
heretofore extended, as to the kind of money received, may be continued for any quantity 
of land not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres, to each purchaser who is an actual 
settler or bona fide resident of the State when the sales are made." 

The circular further stated that — 

"The principal object of the President in adopting this measure was to repress alleged 
frauds, and to withhold any countenance or facilities in the power of the Government, 
from the monopoly of the public lands in the hands of speculators to the injury of the 
actual settlers of the new States, and of emigrants in search of new homes, as well as to dis- 
courage the ruinous extension of bank issues and bank credits, by which those results are 
supposed to be prompted." 

The specie circular, considered with reference to its effects 
subsequent to the time when it went into operation, produced 
all the beneficial results which had been hoped for it by 
General Jackson, but so far as related to southwestern Wis- 
consin, embracing the present counties of Grant, Iowa, 
La Fayette, Dane, Green, and the west half of Rock and 
Columbia, its wisdom was analagous to that of the old adage 
of locking the stable after the horse was stolen. A very 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 219 

large proportion of the most valuable lands in that portion 
of the State had before the loth of August, 183G, passed from 
the control of the government to that of speculators. 

The result was that the great mass "of emigrants in 
search of new homes," during the years 1S3G, 1837, and 1838, 
avoided those counties which had been affected by the 
mildew of speculation, and swarmed upon the counties of 
Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha, Dodge, Jefferson, Walworth 
and the eastern parts of Rock and Columbia, where the 
lands were not offered for sale until 1839, and where a 
choice of location was open to them, and into which the 
blight of land monopoly had not yet entered. " Claims " 
were made and when accompanied by such visible acts as 
indicated the good faith of the claim and the intention of 
occupancy, were always respected. 

These immigrants, thus locating upon the public lands, 
though called not inaptly " squatters," were not, and were 
never regarded, either by the Government, by themselves 
or by the community of which they formed a part, as tres- 
passers. The pre-emption acts of 1830, 1832, 1833 and 1834, 
although limited in the period of their operation which 
expired in June, 1S3C, encouraged such "squatting" as well 
as a just expectation that the pre-emption right would be 
revived, which, however, was not realized until the act of 
June 22, 1838, by which this right was extended for a fur- 
ther period of two years. 

A community of interest and a spirit of justice which 
demanded that the pioneer immigrant should not be robbed 
of the fruits of his honest toil, gave to these squatters* 
claims all the practical security which belonged to a patent 
from the government, and as a consequence the inhabitants 
pursued their ordinary avocations in peace and safety and 
devoted the same time and attention to the interests of the 
public as was the case in older communities. 

In the last chapter was given in detail the features of the 
organic act of the Territory. The first appointments made 
by the President and Senate of the several officers provided 
for by that act were: 

G'oi'e?'wor —Henry Dodge of Dodgeville, Wisconsin. 
Secretai-ij — Jons S. Horner of Virginia. 
Chief Justice — Charles Dunn of Illinois. 
Associate Judges — David Irvin of Virginia and W-AI. C. 
Frazer of Pennsylvania. 



220 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Atiorney — W. W. Chapman of Burlington, Iowa. 

Marshal — Francis Gehon of Dubuque, Iowa. 

On the 4th of July the Governor and Secretary took the 
prescribed oath of oflBce at Mineral Point, which event con- 
tributed a novel and interesting element to a grand celebra- 
tion of the national jubilee, which was very generally 
participated in by the inhabitants of the lead mine region, 
of which that hamlet was then the recognized metropolis. 

The first important thing to be done to complete the or- 
ganization of the embryo territorial government was the 
convening of the Legislative Assembly. Preliminary to 
this a census was to be taken by the sheriffs, and an appor- 
tionment of members of the two branches made by the Gov- 
ernor among the several counties. 

The population of the Territory in August, 1836, as exhib- 
ited by the census was as follows : 

Brown couuty 2,706 

Crawford county 854 

Des Moines county 6,257 

Du Buque county. 4,274 

Iowa county 5,234 

Milwaukee county. . 2,893 

Total 22,218 

On the 9th of September, Governor Dodge issued a procla- 
mation to the effect that he had apportioned the members 
of the Council and House of Representatives amongst the 
several counties of the Territory as follows: 

Brown. 2 members of the Council and 3 of the House of Representatives. 

Crawford members of the Council and 2 of the House of Representatives. 

Milwaukee 2 members of the Council and 3 of the House of Representatives. 

Iowa 3 members of the Council and 6 of the House of Representatives. 

Du Buque 3 members of the Council and 5 of the House of Representatives. 

Des Moines 3 members of the Council and 7 of the House of Representatives. 

13 26 

The proclamation further ordered and directed that the 
first election should be held on the second Monday of Octo- 
ber, and that the electors present, on the day and at the 
place of election, might elect three persons to preside at and 
conduct said election, and provided for the return and can- 
vass of the votes. 

It further ordered and directed that the members elected 
from the several counties should convene at Belmont in 
the county of Iowa on the 25th of October, for the purpose 
of organizing the first session of the Legislative Assembly. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 221 

It also directed and appointed that at the same time and 
places specified for electing members of the legislature, 
there should be elected a delegate to Congress for the term 
of two years. 

The election campaign was quite brief, hardly one month, 
but it excited very considerable interest. 

George W. Jones of Sinsinawa Mound in Iowa (now 
Grant) county had been the delegate during the first session 
of the 24th Congress, 1835-G,from the fragment of Michigan 
Territory remaining after the creation of the State of Mich- 
igan. He had rendered himself very acceptable to the peo- 
ple of the new Territory of Wisconsin, especially by his 
zealous and successful efforts in securing the passage of 
the act of April 20, for its organization. It appeared to be 
very generally thought that an election as the first delegate 
from the new Territory was due to him as a recognition of 
his valuable services, while it would at the same time pro- 
mote the best interests of the infant Territory. Expression 
was given to this general feeling at a public meeting held 
at Belmont on the 23d of September, in pursuance of very 
extensive notice, for the purpose of nominating candidates 
for the Legislature; when Col. Jones was recommended as 
a suitable person for Delegate, and as "possessed of integ- 
rity, untiring zeal, perseverance,' industry and weight of 
character." His election, however, was not destined to be 
entirely unanimous. 

MosES Meeker, one of the earliest settlers of the lead 
mines, who first came to Galena in November, 1822, and 
permanently located there in June, 1823, with his family 
and several others, all of whom came in a keel boat from 
Cincinnati, announced himself as a candidate in a card 
dated "Blue River, Iowa Co., September 21, 1836." His 
candidacy was indorsed by a meeting subsequently held at 
Mineral Point, called for the purpose of nominating candi- 
dates for the Legislature. 

The following is the result of the vote: 

Jones. Meeker. 
Brown County 3 j4 j j 

Crawford County 5g jq 

DesMoines County gco g 

Dubuque County 930 49 

Iowa County 612 017 

Milwaukee County 7-,q j 

3,5i2 69a 



222 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF "WISCONSIN. 

The result in Iowa county is thus explained by the Bel- 
mont Gazette: 

"A temporary excitement with regard to the seat of government was made to operate 
against him (Jones); gratuitous and unfounded reports of his bemg interested in a par- 
ticular place were circulated and to this, and this alone, is to be ascribed his loss of 
votes." 

The elections for members of the Legislature were con- 
ducted on personal and local grounds, and aside from mere 
personal preferences, the questions affecting the results 
were those which were supposed to affect local interests, es- 
pecially the division of counties, creating new counties and 
locating county seats. 

In loiva county two tickets were put in nomination, sup- 
posed to represent different local interests; one by a meet- 
ing held at Belmont on the 23rd of September, the other by 
a meeting subsequently held at Mineral Point. 

The candidates nominated at Belmont were: 

For the Council: James R. Vineyard, John W. Black- 
stone and James Gilmore. 

For the House of Representatives: Thomas Cruson, 
Thomas J. Parish, James H. Gentry, James Collins, John 
Bevans and Benoni R. Gillett. 

Those nominated at Mineral Point were: 

For the Council: Ebe'nezer Brigham, John B. Terry 
and Glendower M. Price. 

For the House of Eepresentatives: James P. Cox, Thomas 
McKnight, Thomas Shanly, William Boyles, Daniel M. 
Parkinson and George F. Smith. 

The candidates nominated at Mineral Point were all 
elected except Mr. Price for the Council, in place of whom 
Mr. Vineyard was chosen. 

The " Mineral Point" ticket was supposed to be in favor 
of the division of Iowa county in the mode adopted by the 
Legislature, with county seats at Mineral Point and on 
Boice Prairie (Lancaster). The candidates nominated on 
the "Belmont" ticket were supposed to favor a division 
which should create one county out of ranges one and two 
east, with one and two west, with the county seat at Bel- 
mont or Platteville, and another county west of that, com- 
prising ranges three, four, five, and six west, with a county 
seat at Cassville. 

In Brown county the candidates for the Council were 
Henry S. Baird, John P. Arndt, and Morgan L. Martin, 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 2-> 



/iv'J 



of whom Messrs. Baird and Arndt were elected. The can- 
didates for the House of Representatives were Ebenezer 
Childs, Albert G. Ellis, Alexander J. Irwin, Joseph 
Dickinson, and George McWilliams. Messrs. Childs, El- 
lis, and Irwin were declared by the returns to be elected, 
but the seat of Mr. Irwin was subsequently vacated by the 
House, and Mr. McWilliams was admitted to it. 

In Milwmilxee county Alanson Sweet and Gilbert 
Knapp were elected to the Council, and to the House of 
Representatives, William B. Sheldon, Madison W. Corn- 
wall, and Charles Durkee were elected. 

In Cratvford county James H. Lockwood, and James B. 
Dallam were elected members of the House of Representa- 
tives. 

No member of the Council was apportioned to this county 
by the Governor, whereat a public meeting was held, said to 
have been " the largest ever held in the county upon any 
public occasion," at which resolutions were adopted, among 
which was the following : 

" Resolved, That in the exercise of our lawful rights, secured to us by the act organiz- 
ing the Territory, we will at the approaching election vote for and elect a member to rep- 
resent the county of Crawford in the Council, and demand that he be admitted to his seat 
as such, relying upon the patriotism and intelligence of our fellow-citizens in the other 
counties of the Territory, and of their representatives, with the confident belief that the 
' majesty of truth will triumph,'' that equal and impartial justice wiU be maintained, 
and the laws of our country vindicated." 

Thomas P. Burnett received almost the entire vote of the 
county. 

The petition of Mr. Burnett, claiming a seat in the Coun- 
cil, was presented and referred to a select committee, which 
reported that — 

" The Council have no control of the case, the power to declare the number of mem- 
bers of the Council to which each county is entitled belonging exclusively to the executive 
as prescribed by the act of Congress for establishing the Territory of Wisconsin." 

The report was accepted and the committee discharged, 
and nothing more was heard of the matter. 

The names and place of nativity of the first Legislative 
Assembly, as organized, were as follows: 

council. 

Brown county — Henry S. Baird, Dublin, Ireland. 

Brown county — John P. Armlt, Northampton countj-, Pennsylvania. 

Des Moines county — Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Pickaway county, Ohio. 

Des Moines county — Joseph B. Teas, Knox county, Tennessee. 

Des Moines county — Arthur B. Inghram, Washington county, Pennsylvania 

Dubuque county — Thomas McCraney. Delaware county, New York. 



22 i HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Dubuque county — Thomas McKnight, Augusta, Virginia. 

Dubuque county — John Foley, Waterford county, Ireland. 

Iowa county — Ebenezer Brigham, Worcester county, Massachusetts. 

Iowa county — John B. Terry, Duchess county, New York, 

Iowa county — James R. Vineyard, Caldwell county, Kentucky. 

Milwaukee county — Gilbert Knapp, Barnstable count}', Massachusetts. 

Milwaukee county — Alanson Sweet, Genesee county, New York. 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 

Brown county — Ebenezer Childs, Worcester county, Massachusetts. 

Brown county — Albert G. Ellis, Oneida county. New York. 

Brown county — Alexander J. Irwin, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. 

Crawford county — James H. Lockwood, Peru, Clinton county. New York. 

Cra-n'ford county — James B. Dallam, Hartford county, Maryland. 

Des Moines county — Isaac Leffler, Washington county, Pennsylvania. 

Des Moines county —Thomas Blair, Bourbon county, Kentucky. 

Des Moines county — John Box, Claiborne county, Tennessee. 

Des Moines county —George W. Teas, White county, Tennessee. 

Des Moines county — David R. Chance, Madison county, Kentucky. 

Des Moines county —Warren S. Jenkins, Hardin county, Kentucky. 

Des Moines county — Eli Reynolds, Washington county, Pennsylvania. 

Dubuque county— Loring Wheeler, Cheshire county. New Hampshire. 

Dubuque county — Hardin Nowlin, Monroe county, Illinois. 

Dubuque county — Plosea T. Camp, Jackson county, Georgia. 

Dubuque county —Peter Hill Engle, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. 

Dubuque county — Patrick Quigley, Londonderry, Ii-eland. 

Iowa county — William Boyles, Green county, Pennsylvania. 

Iowa county — George F. Smith, Wilkes county. North Carolina. 

Iowa county — Daniel M. Parkinson, Carter county, Tennessee. 

Iowa county — Thomas McKnight, Spartenberg coimty. South Carolina. 

Iowa county — Thomas Shanley, South Carolina. 

lowacounty — JamesP. Cox, Philadelphia coimty, Pennsylvania. 

Milwaukee county — WilUam B. Sheldon, Providence, Rhode Island. 

Milwaukee county — Madison W Cornwall, Monroe county, Virginia. 

Milwaukee coimty— Charles Durkee, Royalton, Windsor county, Vermont. 

Both houses convened on the day appointed by the Gov- 
ernor (October 25), and a quorum being present in each 
house they were duly organized, the oath having been 
administered by the Governor. 

In the council Henry S. Baird was elected President, 
Edward McSherry, of Mineral Point, was elected Secre- 
tary, and William Henry, of Mineral Point, Sergeant-at- 
Arms. 

In the House of Representatives, Peter Hill Engle was 
elected Speaker, Warner Lewis, of Dubuque, Chief Clerk, 
and Jesse M. Harrison, Sergeant-at-Arms. 

On the second day of the session the Governor delivered 
his message in person, to the two houses jointly assembled. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 225 

The message recommended early action in defining tlie 
jurisdiction and powers of the several courts, dividing the 
territory into judicial districts and prescribing the times 
and places of holding courts. 

It recommended a memorial to Congress for extending 
the right of pre-emption to settlers on the public lands, and 
to miners for their mineral lots, and expressed the opinion 
that the "price of the public lands should be reduced and 
graduated according to the value of the land" and that "the 
public interest would be greatly promoted by the establish- 
ment of a Surveyor General's office within the Territory." 

It recommended a memorial to Congress asking an appro- 
priation of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the 
completion of the work of the removal of the obstructions in 
the rapids of the Upper Mississippi for which forty thousand 
dollars had been appropriated at the last session of 
Congress. Also an appropriation sufficient to cover the ex- 
pense of surveying all the necessary harbors on Lake Mich- 
igan and the construction of such habors and light-houses at 
the most eligible situations for the security and protection 
of our lake trade. Also for the survey of the Fox river 
from Green Bay to Fort Winnebago. 

The following passage is interesting, as showing the ideas 
of the Governor at that day on the subject of internal im- 
provements in the Territory: 

"The improvement of the navigation of the Rock rivei- 1 consider a subject of vital 
importance to the future prosperity of this Territory. This river waters a large extent of 
fertile coimtry ; a small appropriation by Congress would be suflflcient to remove the obstruc- 
tions in its navigation. It is known that from the outlet of the Four Lakes, that discharges 
itself into the Rock, the distance to Rock river does not exceed twelve miles by land, and 
trom the Fourth Lake it is not more than sixteen miles to the Wisconsin river. Indians 
uave trequently descenaea in canoes, in high water, fi-om the Fourth Lake to the Wis- 
consin river. The great advantage of this inland communication must be apparent; it 
would greatly enhance the value of the national domain in that part of the Territory, and 
mcrease the value of lands pm-chased by individuals from the government. 
The construction of a railroad, commencing at some suitable point on the Mississippi, in 
this Territory, passing through the mining country to Rock river and direct to Lake Michi- 
gan, is a subject of great interest to the citizens of this Territory, who have strong claims 
on the patronage of the government in granting a donation in land for that important 
purpose." 

The message recommended 

'The propriety of asking from Congress a donation of one township of land, to be sold 
and the proceeds of the sale placed under the direction of the Legislative Assembly. Tor 
the establishment of an academy for the education of youth." 
15 



2;:G history of the territory of WISCONSIN. 

A considerable portion of the message was devoted to the 
subject of " organizing and arming the militia." which the 
Governor regarded as '* of great interest to the future peace 
of the people of the Territory." 

Mounted riflemen were recommended as " the most effi- 
cient troops for the protection and defense of our frontier 
settlements;" one company composed of sixty men besides 
officers, was recommended to be organized by law in each 
county, to be uniformed and required to muster once during 
€ach month, and held at all times in readiness to take the 
field. The justice and propriety of asking of Congress a de- 
posit of three thousand stand of arms — one half rifles and 
the remainder muskets — for the use of the citizens in the 
event of an Indian war, with fixed ammunition prepared 
sufficient for a campaign of four months, was recommended. 
Also four light brass field pieces (three pounders) fixed on 
carriages, with a supply of fixed ammunition for them. 

No law was passed for " organizing and arming the mili- 
tia," no companies of mounted riflemen were organized, no 
" arms" or " field pieces" were deposited by the Government, 
and no " Indian war" occurred to demonstrate the wisdom 
of these preparations for such an event. 

The Governor voluntarily divested himself of the abso- 
lute negative given him by the organic act, so far as related 
to the permanent location of the seat of government, by the 
declaration with which his message concluded, in these 
words: 

" I deem it proper to state that my assent will be given to its location at any point where 
a majority of the representatives of the people agree it will best promote the public good." 

The appropriation " to defray the expenses of the Legis- 
lative Assembly," approved May 9, 1836, was only $9,400. It 
was estimated by the finance committee that the actual ex- 
penses of the session would be $18,980, leaving a deficit of 
$9,580. The actual deficit was $15,730.16. 

To meet this deficit an act was passed November 15, 1836, 
authorizing the Secretary of the Territory to borrow such 
sum as might be wanted to defray the expenses of the 
session, not to exceed $10,000. The Secretary was not able 
to make the loan, and the act was repealed December 8th. 
In the meantime, a joint resolution adopted December 3rd, 
by, which John Atohinson, Esq., was appointed Fiscal 
Agent, contained a pledge 

"That all advances of money made by him, should be refunded to bun out of such 
money as might thereafter be appropriated by Congress." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 237 

The llrst act of this session was one which privileged the 
members from arrest and conferred upon them authority to 
punish for contempt. 

The next act divided the Territory into three judicial dis- 
tricts, and made an assignment of one of the three judges 
to each district. Crawford and Iowa counties constituted 
the first district, to which the chief justice was assigned; 
Dubuque and Des Moines the second to which Judge Irvin 
was assigned, and Judge Frazer was assigned to the third, 
consisting of Milwaukee and Brown counties, The act 
provided that two terms of the district courts should be held 
annually in each of the counties, and prescribed the times 
for the commencement of the terms in the several counties. 
Subsequently another act was passed authorizing the judges 
to appoint clerks of the courts previous to the holding of 
the first term. 

Three banks were incorporated — the Miners' Bank of Du- 
buque, the Bank of Mineral Point and the Bank of Mil- 
waukee, ^11 of which were organized and went into 
operation, and all failed and became utterly bankrupt, as 
did also the Bank of "Wisconsin at Green Bay, which was 
incorporated in 1835 by the Legislative Council of Michigan 
Territor}^ The loss sustained by the community by the 
failure of the Bank of Mineral Point was over $200,000. 

All the territory south and east of the Wisconsin and Fox 
Rivers was subdivided into counties, the boundaries of 
which were mainly like those of the existing counties, ex- 
cept that Kenosha has been formed from Racine; Waukesha 
from Milwaukee; Ozaukee from Washington; Green Lake 
from IVIarquette and La Fayette from Iowa. Columbia 
county was called Portage. In most of the counties the 
county seats were established at the same session. These 
questions, however, did not create much discussion or ex- 
citement in the Legislative Assembly, as the questions, 
where any existed, had been mainly decided at the elec- 
tions, and the members had only to give effect to the 
expressed will of those citizens by whom they had been 
elected. 

The great and paramount question of the session was the 
location of the seat of government. To this all others were 
subordinate and made subservient. The wild sj^irit of spec- 
ulation, which in the earlier part of the year 1836 had, like a 
tornado, swept over the whole country, and which, having 



228 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

invaded and unsettled the prices of every species of persona 1 
property, seized upon the unsold public domain, which was 
transferred by millions of acres from the control of the Gov- 
ernment and the occupation of the settler, to the dominion 
of the speculator, although on the wane in the last months 
of that year, was still omnipotent, and exerted a marked 
influence upon many of the members of the Belmont Legis- 
lature. 

Numerous speculators were in attendance with beautiful 
maps of prospective cities, whose future greatness was por- 
trayed with all the fervor and eloquence which the excited 
imaginations of their proprietors could display. Madison, 
Belmont, Fond du Lac, and Cassville were the points which 
were most prominently urged upon the consideration of the 
members. Hon. James Duane Doty, afterward a delegate 
in Congress and Governor of the Territory, and inore re- 
cently Governor of Utah, where he died, had resided many 
years at Green Bay as additional Judge of Michigan Terri- 
tory. His frequent journeys in discharge of his judicial 
duties, in the different parts of the Territory, had rendered 
him familiar with its geography and topography, and had 
given him superior advantages for judging of the eligibility 
of different points as sites for the capital of the Territory 
and future State. Judge Doty fixed upon the isthmus be- 
tween the third and fourth of the Four Lakes, and in con- 
junction with Stevens T. Mason, the Governor of Michigan 
Territory, purchased from the Government about one thou- 
sand acres in sections 13, 14, 23, and 24, upon the common 
corner of which the capital now stands. Upon this tract of 
land a town plat was laid out, called Madison, and under 
the auspices of its founder became a formidable competitor 
for the honor and advantages of being selected as the seat 
of government. Madison town lots in large numbers were 
freely distributed among members, their friends, and others 
who were supposed to possess influence with them. 

Nearly four weeks were spent in skirmishing outside the 
legislative halls, when on the 21st of November, the battle 
was formally opened in the Council, and the bill considered 
in committee of the whole until the 23d, when it was reported 
back in the form in which it became a law, fixing 
upon Madison as the seat of government, and providing that 
the sessions of the Legislative Assembly should be held at 
Burlington, in Des Moines county, until March 4, 1839, unless 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 229 

the public buildings at Madison should be sooner completed. 
When the bill was reported back by the committee of the 
whole, and was under consideration in the Council, where 
the ayes and noes could be called, a spirited attack was made 
upon it, and motions to strike out Madison and insert some 
other place were successively made in favor of Fond du 
Lac, Dubuque, Portage, Helena, Milwaukee, Racine, Bel- 
mont, Mineral Point, Platteville, Green Bay, Cassville, Belle- 
view, Koshkonong, Wisconsinapolis, Peru, and Wisconsin 
City; but all with one uniform result — ayes 6, noes 7; and 
the bill was by the same vote ordered engrossed, and the next 
day passed the Council, 

The members of the Council who had voted for the bill, 
and, of course, in favor of Madison as the permanent seat 
of government, were Messrs. Arndt, Brigham, Inghram, 
Sweet, Smith, Terry and Teas; and those who voted 
against it were Messrs. Foley, Knapp, McKnight, McCra- 
NEY, Vineyard and Baird (Pres't). 

A protest signed by all who voted against it, except Mr. 
Vineyard, was afterwards presented, but the Council re- 
fused to receive it. 

In the House of Representatives the opposition was not 
so formidable, and on the 38th the bill was ordered to a 
third reading by a vote of IG to 10 and passed the same day.. 
Those who voted for the passage of the bill were Messrs. 
Blair, Box, Boyles, Chance, Cornwall, Cox, Durkee 
Jenkins, Leffler, Lockwood, McKnight, Parkinson 
Reynolds, Shanley and Teas. Those who voted against it 
were Messrs. Camp, Childs, Dallam, Ellis, Irwin, Now- 
LiN, Quigley, Sheldon, Smith, Wheeler and Engle, 
(Speaker). 

The speaker, in his farewell address to the House, thus 
alluded to this measure: 

"There has been one subject settled of more than ordinary interest — it has elicited all 
the ingenuity, tact and talent of the House in debate, and some asperity of feeling. It has 
been a measure of such absorbing interest, as to color, in a degree, the other proceedings 
of this body. I have been in the minority on this question; my votes will be found on the 
side of those who ardently resisted the course that question has taken." 

On the 31st of October the President laid before the Coun- 
cil a communication from the Secretary of the Territory 
accompanied with " a great seal of Wisconsin Territory " 
and an impression thereof. 

The seal was 2i inches in diameter. Upon the scroll, sur- 
mounting the seal are the words " Great Seal of Wisconsin." 



230 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A miner's arm projects from the left;, grasping a pick and 
suspending it over a pile of lead ore. Under the base line 
are the words " 4th day of July, Anno Domino, 1836." 

Memorials to Congress were adopted asking for aid to 
construct a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi 
River; requesting that three thousand stand of arms — half 
rifles and half muskets^ one thousand pistols, and four 
light field pieces, be deposited within the Territory for the 
use of the citizens; asking a small appropriation to defray 
the expense of surveying a canal from the mouth of the 
Sheboygan River to the head of Lake Winnebago; also for 
an appropriation of eight thousand dollars 

" For the purjiose of opening a road from Fort "Winnebago to intersect tlie military road 
leading from Green Bay to Chicago, at the most eligible point between tlie mouth of the 
Milwaukee River and the northern boundary line of the State of Illinois;" 

to complete the opening and building of which military 
road already surveyed, an appropriation of the necessary 
sum was asked. An appropriation was also asked for 
a wagon road from Milwaukee via Madison to the Mississ- 
ippi River, Another memorial was adopted asking the fol- 
lowing appropriations for internal improvements: 

For the improvement of the harbor and construction of 
a light house at Milwaukee, thitty thousand dollars; 

At Racine twenty-six thousand dollars; 

At the mouth of Pike River (Kenosha) six thousand five 
hundred dollars; 

At the mouth of Sheboygan River, twenty-five thousand 
dollars; 

At the mouth of Manitowoc River, twenty -five thousand 
dollars; 

At the mouth of Kewaunee River, twelve thousand dollars; 

At the mouth of Twin Rivers, six thousand, four hundred 
dollars; 

For the construction of a pier and beacon light at Long 
Tail Point at the head of Green Bay, twenty thousand dol- 
lars, and six hundred dollars for buoys to mark the ship 
channel from thence to the mouth of Fox River; the sum of 
twenty-five thousand dollars for the improvement of Fox 
River; and the sum of two thousand dollars for the survey 
of the Wisconsin River, and the sum of one thousand dol- 
lars for the survey of Rock River. An appropriation of 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was asked for the 
improvement of the rapids of the Mississippi River. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. ;,^3i 

A memorial was also adopted asking far the passage of a 
pre-emption law. 

An act prescribing the manner of approving sheriffs' 
bonds and one defining the duties of coroners were 
passed. 

A general law was passed to provide for the incorpora- 
tion of towns and villages. 

A law authorizing the construction of a bridge across 
the Milwaukee River from Oneida to Wells street was 
passed which encountered much opposition in Milwaukee. 

An act was passed which provided that the county seat 
of Brown county should be established either at Navarino, 
Astor, or Depere as might be decided by a vote of the qual- 
ified electors. 

The supervisors were empowered to grant licenses in 
their respective counties for the sale of intoxicating liquors. 

Three territorial roads were authorized to be laid out at 
the expense of the several counties through which they 
run : 

From Janes's ferry through Rockford, Centerville, New 
Mexico and White Oak Springs to the Mississippi river. 

From Milwaukee via Madison to the Blue Mounds. 

From the mouth of Pike Creek by way of the fork of 
White and Fox rivers to the Rock river at Janesville. 

The only railroad charter granted out of the many that 
were desired was one for the construction of a railroad from 
"Belmont in Iowa county to the nearest and most eligible 
point on the Mississippi river," with "power to extend the 
railroad from Belmont to Mineral Point and from thence to 
Dodgeville." 

The act establishing the seat of government provided that 
three commissioners should be elected by joint ballot of the 
Council and House of Representatives, whose duty it was to 
cause the necessary public buildings to be erected at Madi- 
son. In pursuance of this law, James D. Doty, John F. 
O'Neil and Augustus A. Bikd were elected. 

By a joint resolution, John M, Clayton and Lewis F. 
Linn, senators, George W. Jones, delegate in Congress, 
and Peter Hill Engle, speaker, were appointed a commit- 
tee to select and purchase a library for the use of the Ter- 
ritory, and for that purpose were authorized to draw the 
money appropriated therefor by the organic act. 

A proposition was made for a commission to codify the 



232 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

laws, but the opinion was prevalent that the Territory 
would soon be divided, so that this and other propositions of 
a kindred character, met with but little favor. 

The first Legislative Assembly, having enacted that the 
annual sessions should thereafter be held on the first Mon- 
day of November, adjourned sine die on the 9th day of De- 
cember, having been in session 46 days, and passed 42 laws, 
about one-half of which were of a private nature. 

It was provided by the organic act that "the Governor 
shall nominate and by and with the advice and consent of 
the Council shall appoint all judicial officers, justices of the 
peace, sheriffs and all militia officers (except those of the 
staff), and all civil officers not herein provided for." A 
large number of appointments were made by the Governor 
and Council, of which a few are mentioned: 

Brown county. Barlow Shackleford, District Attorney. 

Crawford county. William Wilson, sheriff; James H. 
LocKWOOD, Judge of Probate. 

loiva county. Justus De'Seelhorst, Sheriff; Hugh E. 
Colter, Judge of Probate. 

Grant county. Joseph H. D. Street, Sheriff; John H. 
Rountree, Judge of Probate. 

Milwaukee county. Owen Aldridge, Sheriff; William 
Campbell, Judge of Probate. 

Racine county. Edgar R. Hugunin, Sheriff; William 
BuLLEN, Judge of Probate. 

Surveyors, masters in chancery, supreme court com- 
missioners, auctioneers,- numerous justices of the peace 
and notaries public were appointed in all the counties; as 
well those newly organized as the six old counties. 

No attempt to preserve the debates in either House on 
any subject is made, but it is thought the following extracts 
from the verbatim report in the Belmont Gazette, of the re- 
marks of Mr. Chance, a member of the House from Des 
Moines county, justify a reproduction. He is reported as 
having said 

" Mr. Chairman: I have waited patiently, till the doctors and lawyers got through, to 
make a speech on the location of the seat of government. I was raised in the wiles of 
Ellinois, and us't to wear a leather huntin' shirt and sleep under a buffalo rug. I was 
edicated in the woods. The yearly part of my life was spent in trackin' Ingens; but it is 
harder tracken these gentlemen. We have envited the gentlemen to come up to the troft, 
and argy the question on its merits, but as the Yankee said, they squerm, and won't come 
up to the rack. 

Mr. Chairman, we are honest men from Des Moines; we are not to be bought or sold. 



TE^RRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1836. 233 

I have no town property in the Territory of Wisconsin, only some marked out in 
the town of Wapello and want to sell them. We are willin' to meet the opposers of this 
bill on this floor, on its merits, and at the bar of the great day. 

Mr. Chairman, in all legislative bodies there is a majority and a minority; the minority, 
imfortunit critters, are siu-e to kick up and bellow. It puts me in mind of the little boy's 
swearin. The cattle came up one evening bellowin; the little boy ran to his mother and 
said, " Mother let me swear at the cattle?" " Begone you httle rascal," was the reply. He 
came the second time and the mother, becoming desirous to hear what he would say, gave 
him Uberty. He ran out, got on the fence and said " bellow on you devils." 

The Supreme Court of the Territory held its first session 
at Belmont on the 8th of December. Present, Charles 
Dunn, Chief Justice, and David Irvin, Associate Justice. 
Judge Frazer was not present. 

John Catlin was appointed clerk and Thomas P. Bur- 
nett, reporter. 

The following- gentlemen were admitted to the bar: Henry 
S. Baird, Peter Hill Engle, David G. Fenton, James 
Duane Doty, James B. Dallam, Thomas P. Burnett, 
William W. Chapman, Lyman I. Daniels, Barlow 
Shackleford, Wm. N. Gardner, Hans Crocker, Joseph 
Teas, William Smith, James H. Lockwood, James Nagle 
and John S. Horner. 

The first newspaper in Milwaukee — the Mihvmikee Adver- 
tiser — was established at Milwaukee July 14, 1836, by 
Daniel H. Richards, publisher and editor. It was a six- 
column paper of four pages, the form being 18^ inches by 14 
inches. The terms of subscription were $3.00 per annum, 
payable in advance. 

The Belmont Gazette was published at Belmont by James 
Clarke and John B. Russell; the first number appeared 
October 25, 1836. It had four pages 21 inches by 14 inches, 
six columns to a page. After the adjournment of the Legis- 
lature its size was reduced to 10^ inches by 10 inches, with 
only four columns to a page. Its publication was continued 
at Belmont until April, 1837, when it was removed to Bur- 
lington. 

This, it is believed, presents a compendium of the most 
important events occurring in 1830, the first year of the ex- 
istence of the new Territory of Wisconsin. 



234 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN.* 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 

During the twelve years of the political existence of Wis- 
consin under its new and final territorial form of govern- 
ment, the proceedings of the Congress of the United States, 
in relation to matters affecting its welfare, were of especial 
interest to its inhabitants. 

It is true that by the organic law a local legislature was 
provided, the power of which extended to all rightful sub- 
jects of legislation, but with the qualification that — 

"All the laws of the Governor and Legislative Assembly shall be submitted to, and if 
disapproved by the Congress of the United States, the same shall be null and of uo 
efCect." 

A further limitation was that no session in any year 
should exceed seventy-five days. 

The expenses of the Legislative Assembly, as well as the 
compensation of the Governor, Secretary, Judges, and all 
United States officers of the Territory were to be paid by 
appropriations made by Congress, and the chief interest in 
its proceedings was directed to bills making appropriations 
for these objects as well also as for the survey and improve- 
ment of harbors, the erection of light-houses, and the sur- 
vey, opening, and construction of roads. 

Another subject of congressional action in which the early 
settlers, especially those between Rock river and the lake, 
felt an interest paramount to any other, was the renewal 
and extension to them of the provisions of the pre-emption 
laws. 

It was in the twenty-fourth Congress that the great ad- 
vantage to the inhabitants of the newly established Terri- 
tory of Wisconsin of being represented by a delegate elected 
by themselves, and from among themselves, whose thoughts, 
feelings, interests, and pioneer experiences were homogene- 
ous with theirs, was first manifested. ■ 

George Wallace Jones was born near the beginning of 
the nineteenth century in the State of Missouri. His father 
was a prominent member of the convention which framed 
the first constitution of that State, and one of the judges of 
the Supreme Court. The son having been graduated at the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 235 

Transylvania University of Kentucky, studied law, and was 
admitted to the bar in 1826. But the slow-going town of 
Cape Girardeau, and the limited opportunities which it fur- 
nished in the practice of law for the exercise of his energetic 
faculties, could not long retain the genius it had reared. In 
1827 he migrated to the lead mines of the Upper Mississippi, 
and located at Sinsinawa Mound, in the southwestern town- 
ship of Wisconsin, where he successfully engaged in mining 
and smelting. He took an active part in the Black Hawk 
war in 1832 as the aid de camp of Gen. Henry Dodg^., and 
filled various civil offices, among which was that of judge 
of the county court of Iowa county. 

Gen. Jones having in 1835 been elected delegate in Con- 
gress to represent the " contingent remainder" of the old 
Michigan Territory, served as such during the first session 
of the twenty-fourth Congress, and was elected as the first 
delegate from the new Territory of Wisconsin, by a vote 
nearly unanimous in every county except Iowa, where, for 
reasons already given, the vote was divided nearly equally 
between him and Moses Meeker, his only opponent. 

The commencement of the year 1837 found the newly- 
elected delegate at his post in the House of Kepresentatives, 
fortified in the successful discharge of his duties by ^fresh 
indorsement of a newly-created constituency. His oppor- 
tunities, which he had well improved during the preceding 
session, had given him an extensive acquaintance with the 
members of that Congress, and he was able, not by his much 
speaking, nor by rhetoric or oratory, but by a kind and 
amiable temper, a fascinating and persuasive manner, an 
untiring industry and perseverance, a clear and forcible 
presentation of tlie wants and needs, as well as the just 
claims of his constituents, to secure an early and favorable 
consideration of the various measures proposed to promote 
their welfare. 

One of the most important and effective means to secure 
such favorable action; especially when such a continuous 
contest for the precedence of business is ever going on; and 
which was largely due to his indefatigable labors, was to 
induce the House to set apart a specific time for the consid- 
eration of bills affecting the territories. 

Of all the members of the 24tli Congress none was more 
devoted to the interests of Wisconsin than Lewis F. Linn, 
one of the senators from Missouri. He was the half brother 



23G HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

of Gov. Dodge, and upon all occasions was watchful for 
and attentive to every measure affecting the Territory of 
which his kinsman was the chief executive officer. 

On the 19th of December, he introduced a series of resolu- 
tions which were adopted by the Senate, giving instructions 
to different committees as follows: 

The committee on public land to inquire into the expe- 
diency of establishing a Surveyor General's office for 
Wisconsin Territory; also of appropriating for the purpose of 
constructing roads and bridges in the Territory, the value of 
all rent lead received at the United States lead mines on the 
upper Mississippi river; also of making appropriations in 
land and in money for the construction of roads in the Ter- 
ritory of Wisconsin from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi 
river through the United States lead mines. 

The committee on commerce to inquire into the expedi- 
ency of improving harbors and constructing light houses on 
the coast of Lake Michigan, in the counties of Milwaukee 
and Brown, and of constructing a pier and beacon light at 
the head of Green Bay, and of placing buoys in its channel; 
also of amending the act of July 2, 1836, laying off certain 
towns in Wisconsin. 

Th^ committee on Indian affairs to inquire into the expe- 
diency of appropriating money to hold treaties with and the 
purchase of the land belonging to the Sac and Fox, Sioux, 
and Winnebago Indians and to provide for their removal 
west of the Mississippi River. 

Several of thqse measures received the favorable action of 
Congress, 

The first act of the second session of the 24th Congress 
possessing any special interest to the people of Wisconsin, 
was "An act to admit the state of Michigan into the Union, 
upon an equal footing with the original states" approved 
January 26, 1837. 

This act was the final consummation of the compromise 
of the serious question of boundary between Ohio and 
Michigan. A compromise which was a flagrant violation 
of the fifth of the "articles of compact," which by the ordi- 
nance of July 13, 1787 (older than the constitution itself) 
were to "forever remain unalterable, unless by common con- 
sent." By this compromise, the northern peninsula (so 
called) lying between Lakes Superior and Michigan and 
bounded on the southwest by the Menomonee river of Green 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. ^37 

Bay and the Montreal river of Lake Superior, and contain- 
ing about one third of the territory naturally and properly 
belonging to Wisconsin (the fifth state of the Northwest 
Territory), was given to the state of Michigan, as a compen- 
sation for the small strip, ''north of an east and west line 
drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake 
Michigan" of which she had been robbed in the establish- 
ment of the boundaries of the state of Ohio. 

The act recited, that whereas in pursuance of an act of 
Congress of June 15, ISoG, 

"A convention of delegates elected by the people of the said state of Michigan for the 
sole purpose of giving their assent to tlie boundaries of the said state of Michigan as de- 
scribed, declared and established in and by the said act, did on the 15th day of December, 
1836, assent to the provisions of said act, therefore" it was enacted '" that the said state of 
Michigan shall be one and is hereby declared to be one of the United States of America, 
and admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects 
whatever." 

This act was an outrage upon all geographical propriety 
and upon the inchoate rights of boundary which the people 
of the State of Wisconsin were in the near future to possesl. 
But these considerations were of no avail, and this unjust 
measure of infringement upon the boundaries of the future 
State of Wisconsin was consummated. 

On the 3d day of September, 1830, a treaty was negotiated 
at Cedar Point, on Fox River, near Green Bay, between 
Hexry Dodge, Governor of the Territory and Commissioner 
on the part of the United States, on the one part, and the 
chiefs and head men of the Menomonee nation of Indians 
of the other part, which was ratified by the President of the 
United States, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, on the loth day of February, 1837. 

By this treaty the Menomonee nation ceded to the L'nited 
States two separate tracts of territory. One embraced all 
the country between Green Bay and Fox River on the east 
and southeast, and the Wolf River on the south, southwest 
and west, the northern portion of the boundary being a line 
extended northeastwardly from the Wolf to the upper forks 
of the Menomonee River, The northern boundary extended 
from the upper forks of the Menomonee River to the Esca- 
naba River, thence following that river to its mouth in the 
Bay de Noquet. This tract was estimated in the treaty at 
four million acres, and embraced a portion of Michigan as 
well as Wisconsin. 



238 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The other tract ceded began at a point on the Wisconsin 
River a short distance below Grand Rapids, in Wood 
county, — 

"Thence running up and along said river forty-eight miles in a direct line, and being 
•three miles in width on each side of the river." 

The Indians agreed to remove from the ceded country 
within one year after the ratification of the treaty. 

In consideration of this cession the United States agreed 
to pay to the Menomonees annually for the term of twenty 
years, the sum of twenty thousand dollars in money, three 
thousand dollars worth of provisions, five hundred dollars 
per year for farming utensils, cattle or implements of hus- 
bandry, two thousand pounds of tobacco and thirty barrels 
of salt per annum; to appoint and pay two blacksmiths, 
erect two blacksmiths' shops, and supply them with the 
necessary iron, steel and tools. Also to pay the debts of the 
Indians according to a schedule annexed to the treaty, 
amounting to about one hundred thousand dollars. 

To the "relatives and friends of mixed blood" of the In- 
dians, eighty thousand dollars. 

And the further sum of seventy-six thousand dollars in 
consideration of the release of the United States from cer- 
tain provisions of certain former treaties. 

The total amount of the sums agreed to be paid by the 
United States would amount, during twenty years, to but 
little, if any, less than eight hundred thousand dollars. 

There was appropriated by act of Congress of March 3, 
1837, for carrying this treaty into effect the sum of two 
hundred eighty- eight thousand, five hundred and forty 
dollars. 

Some other Indian treaties were negotiated during the 
year 1837, but as they were not ratified until the subsequent 
year, they are not here noticed. 

The civil and diplomatic appropriation act, of March 3, 
1837, contained an appropriation "for arrearages for the 
expenses of the Legislative Assembly for the year 1836, 
fifteen thousand, seven hundred and thirty dollars and six- 
teen cents," which discharged all the obligations of the terri- 
torial government. 

The same contained an appropriation of nine thousand, 
one hundred dollars "for compensation of the Governor, 
Judges and Secretary." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 239 

It also contained in different parts of the act, two sepa. 
rate appropriations for apparently similar objects. One is 

" For contiDRent expenses aud compensation of the memljers of the Legislative As- 
sembly and printing of the laws, nine thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars."' 

The other is " for the expenses of the Legislative Assembly for the year one thousand, 
eight hundred and thirty-seven, thirty-six thousand, seven hundred aud sixty-five 
dollars." 

It was provided by an act of Congress approved July 2, 
1836, that the tracts of land, not to exceed one entire sec- 
tion, including the towns of Fort Madison, Burlington, 
Belleview, Dubuque, Peru and Mineral Point, should under 
the direction of the Surveyor General, be laid off into lots, 
streets, avenues and public squares, and into out lots, and 
offered at public sale to the highest bidder. The lots were 
to be classified into three classes, the minimum price of 
which was to be forty dollars per acre for the first class, 
twenty for the second and ten for the third, and no lot to be 
sold for less than five dollars. Occupants of lots were to 
have a right of pre-emption. 

By an amendatory act passed at the next session, ap- 
proved March 3, 1837, it was provided that the acts and 
duties required to be done and performed by the Surveyor 
General, should be done by a board of three commissioners 
to be appointed by the President. They were to hear and 
determine all pre-emption claims and to receive a compen- 
sation of six dollars per day, to be paid out of the proceeds 
of the sales of lots. All the residue of the money arising 
from the sales of lots, after paying the commissioners and 
the other expenses incident to the survey and sale, was to 
be paid over to the trustees of the respective towns. 

It was under this act that titles to lots in the city of Min- 
eral Point are held, except to certain portions, which had 
been sold by the United States before the passsage of the act 
of July 2, 1836. 

While it was provided by the law organizing the Territory 
that laws of the Territory should be submitted to, "and if 
disapproved by Congress, should be null and of no effect," 
there was another act of Congress approved July 1, 1836, 
which prescribed in affirmative terms — 

"That no act of the Territorial Legislature of any of the territories of the United States 
incorporating any bank or any institution, with banking powers or privileges hereafter 
passed, shall have any force or effect whatever, until approved and confirmed by Con- 
gress." 



2-10 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

To comply with the requirements of this act, the delegate 
obtained the passage of an act which then appeared to be in 
accordance with the general desire of the people, that the 
three acts of the Territorial Legislature, incorporating 
the Bank of Milwaukee, the Miners' Bank of Dubuque, and the 
Bank of Mineral Point, be approved and confirmed on cer- 
tain conditions expressed in the act which was passed 
March 3, 1837. 

In the act making appropriations for building light houses, 
light boats, beacon lights, etc., for the year 1837, were in- 
serted the following appropriations for the Territory of 
Wisconsin: 

"For erecting a light house at the mouth of Milwaukee River, five thousand dollars; for 
erecting a light house at the mouth of the Manitowoc River, five thousand dollars; for a 
lighthouse at Chipewagan (Shebo3-gan), five thousand dollars; for erecting a lighthouse 
at the entrance of Grteu Bay, five thousand dollars; for ej-ecting a light house at Root 
River, five thousand dollars."'' 

The pre-pemption laws were not extended or renewed. A 
bill for this purpose passed the Senate and was defeated in 
the House, but even this bill required occupancy of and res- 
idence on the tract before the 1st of December, 1836, and 
cultivation within the year 1836, so that if it had passed it 
would have been practically valueless to the great mass of 
those who had made "claims" in the district of lands subject 
to sale at Milwaukee. This land district included the pres- 
ent counties of Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, 
Washington, Waukesha, Jefferson, Walworth, Rock, the 
east range of townships in Green county, the four east 
ranges in Dane county, the southern tier of towns in Colum- 
bia county, and the two southern tiers in Dodge county, in 
all about one hundred and fifty townships. 

Twelve months before the adjournment of the Sith Con- 
gress the population of this district probably did not amount 
to five hundred. By the census taken in August, 1836, it 
was nearly three thousand, and it 'is estimated that during 
the next six months it had nearly doubled, and that by the 
1st of March, 1837, it was but little, if any, less than six 
thousand. 

On the 27th of February, an anonymous notice was 
given in the Milwaukee Advertiser and in hand-bills, that a 
meeting of the people of Milwaukee, Washington, Jeffer- 
son and Dodge counties would be held at the court house in 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 241 

Milwaukee on the 13th of March, " for the purpose of adopt- 
ing such rules as will secure to actual settlers their claims on 
principles of justice and equity " and stating that in the ab- 
sence of pre-emption laws it was the duty of the settlers 
" to unite for their own protection when the lands shall be 
brought into market." 

Before noon of the appointed day the number of settlers 
assembled in response to this notice, astonished every one 
present, and no one more than the settlers themselves. The 
most reliable estimates placed the number at not less than 
one thousand, while many thought it was much greater. 

Nor was the meeting any less remarkable for the elevated 
character of the men composing it, than for the magnitude 
of its numbers. It was not a rabble of lawless "squatters," 
but the men who have assisted in laying the foundation and 
rearing the superstructure of our state, and who are entitled 
to a large share of credit for its growth and prosperity, were 
those who were assembled on this occasion to devise meas- 
ures to protect their " claims " and improvements from being 
sacrificed to the unconscionable greed of avaricious specu- 
lators. 

The very presence and determined resolution of this as- 
semblage was an admonition to all such speculators that 
any attempt to interfere with the rights of the settler would 
be futile if not hazardous to personal safety, while the rules 
and regulations adopted, whereby the right of occupancy 
might be determined, were so well adapted to the end in 
view that security of the occupancy of the public domain 
for the purpose of permanent settlement and improvement, 
appeared to be placed beyond doubt; and the inviolability 
of settlers' claims made in good faith w^as made as certain 
as it could have been by any pre-emption law. 

The meeting was organized by the election of Samuel 
HiNMAX, President; Samuel Sanburx and Sylvester Petti- 
bone, Vice-Presidents and A. O. T. Beeed and I. A. Lapham, 
Secretaries. 

A committee of twenty-one was appointed to report rules 
and regulations for the consideration of the meeting. The 
committee was composed of Byron Kilbourn, Solomon Ju- 
neau, Alfred Morgan, Alfred Orendorff, Henry Shew, 
Luther Parker, Charles Everett, Enoch Chase, IST. F. 
Hyer, John Manderville, Robert Masters, John S. Rock- 
avell, John Howard, Dwight Foster, Alva Harrington, 

16 



242 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Thomas H. Olin, Nicholas Whalen, James Sandeeson, Jer- 
emiah Putney and A. L. Barber. 

After a recess of two hours the committee, by Byron Kil- 
BOURN, reported rules and regulations for the consideration 
of the meeting. 

They were prefaced by a preamble which recited that the 
settlers of Milwaukee county and the several counties 
thereto attached had removed to and settled in that section 
of country for the purpose of bettering their condition by 
agricultural pursuits. 

That the Congress of the United States, by the repeated 
passage of pre-emption laws, had impressed them with a 
reasonable belief that the same policy would continue to be 
pursued for their benefit. 

That the settlements in that section of the country had 
been in great part so recently formed that a pre-emption law 
containing such provisions as that reported during the late 
session of Congress would not embrace the case of a large 
number of meritorious settlers. That they could not witness 
without emotion the sacrifice of their property and improve- 
ments. 

That in order to secure the fruits of their labors in a 
peaceable and equitable manner it was necessary that cer- 
tain fixed rules and regulations should be adopted by the 
settlers, whereby the right of occupancy should be deter- 
mined. Therefore it was resolved that they adopt and 
would to the best of their ability sustain in full force of ob- 
ligation the rules and regulations adopted. 

These rules and regulations prescribed that any person 
who had prior to that date made a claim on one or more 
quarter sections, not exceeding in the whole one section, 
and made improvements thereon equal to fifty dollars for 
each quarter section, should have the right to retain such 
claims, and the future right to make such claims was also 
recognized; but such rights were subject to the right of im- 
provement and cultivation in the mode and within the time 
prescribed by the rules, which also contained definitions of 
what constituted cultivation and improvement. 

The rules provided for the appointment by the meeting of 
a central executive committee of fifteen, whose duty it was 
to fix the limits of the different precincts, the people in each 
of which precincts were to appoint a judicial committee. 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 043 

Also for the appointment of a clerk of the committee and 
a register of claims. 

Eight or more members constituted a quorum of the com- 
mittee, and a vote of a majority of the members present de- 
cided all questions, including appeals. 

The judicial committee in each precinct was to decide all 
disputes between claimants in each precinct to the same 
tract of land, subject to an appeal to the central executive 
committee. All trials by either of said committees were to 
be governed by the rules and regulations, and by the prin- 
ciples of justice and equity. 

It was provided that all existing claims should be entered 
with the register of claims, and that any one not entered 
by the first day of May should be considered as no claim, 
and might be occupied by any person who might choose to 
take it; and that all claims thereafter made should be entered 
with the register within ten days, or be considered vacant 
and subject to be entered by any other person. 

If any claimant neglected to make the improvements re- 
quired by the rules within the time limited therefor, he for- 
feited his rights, and any person might take possession 
thereof in his own right. 

When any person purchased a claim from another he was 
required to give immediate notice thereof to the register, 
and have the transfer made in his name. 

The party in whose favor any decision was made by any 
judicial committee, or by the central committee on appeal, 
was to receive a certificate thereof, on presenting which, to 
the register of claims, he was to enter the tract of land 
therein described in the name of such party, any previous 
entry to the contrary notwithstanding, and such party was 
thereupon entitled to take possession of such tract with- 
out any further judicial proceedings. 

The essence of all these rules and regulations was con- 
tained in the ninth rule, which was as follows : 

" Whenever the lands shall be brought into market, the executive committee shall ap- 
point an agent to bid off the lands in behalf of the settlers whose claims are entered on the 
book of registry , and no person shall in any case be countenanced in bidding in opposi- 
tion to such agent.'''' 

The moral sentiment of that whole community was all in 
one direction, and it was well known and felt by all to be 
abundantly adequate to protect the agent against any com- 



2U HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

petition in bidding at the land sale, and to secure to the 
settler his claim at the government minimum price. 

Not to be "countenanced" was a mild mode of expressing 
the deep seated determination of the pioneer settlers, but it 
was quite as effective as if it had been in the form of a 
threat of lynching, which would have been an unseemly 
mode of publishing an unlawful combination and conspiracy, 
to prevent competitive bidding at a public sale of the lands 
of the United States. 

The central executive committee appointed by the meet- 
ing consisted of A, A. Bird, Solomon Juneau, N. F. Hyer, 
Samuel Brown, Albert Fowler, D. H. Richards, A. O. T. 
Breed, Samuel Hinman, William R Longstreet, H. M. 
Hubbard, James Sanderson, C. H. Peake, Daniel Wells, 
Jr., Byron Kilbourn and Enoch Chase. 

At a meeting of this committee the next day, the follow- 
ing officers were elected: A. A. Bird, President; Byron 
Kilbourn and Samuel Hinman, Vice-Presidents; Wm. A. 
Prentiss, Clerk; and Allen O. T. Breed, Register of Claims. 
It was ordered that in deciding appeals from precinct com- 
mittees, the central committee would proceed according to 
the practice of courts of equity, and that it would meet on 
the first Monday of every month. 

It was also ordered that the territory to which the rules 
and regulations were applicable, be divided into ten pre- 
cints, which were called Washington, Dodge, Jefferson, 
Prairie Village, Muckwanago, Muskego, Oak Creek, Poplar 
Creek, Chase's Point and Menomonee, the townships in each 
of which were definitely specified. The time fixed for the 
election of a judicial committee in each precinct was Mon- 
day, March 27, and a convenient place was designated in 
each, and the result of the election was required to be re- 
ported to the clerk of the central committee. 

At a meeting of the central committee held on the lOtli 
of April, Jefferson county was divided into three precincts, 
called respectively, Watertown, Jefferson and Fort Atkin- 
son, and the last Monday of April designated as the time for 
holding elections of judicial committees in each precinct. 

At the same meeting I. A.. Lapham was appointed Register 
of Claims, vice A. O. T. Breed, resigned. 

The mode provided for determining disputed claims be- 
tween settlers and its administration appeared to give great 
satisfaction to all parties interested. This organization did 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 245 

not embrace Racine county (of which Kenosha was then a 
part) nor Walworth or Rock, but another similar organiza- 
tion existed for the settlers in these counties. 

The press is justly regarded as the handmaid, if not the 
precursor of civilization. Previous to the year 1837 there 
were two newspapers at Green Bay, the Intelligencer and 
Democrat and the Free Press, at Milwaukee the Advertiser, 
and at Belmont the Gazette. About the first of the year or 
the last of the preceding, the two Green Bay papers were 
consolidated into one, called the "Wisconsin Democrat," 
which was well conducted and ably edited by Hon. Charles 
C. Sholes, who subsequently attained marked political dis- 
tinction in the State. 

Tn the month of April the Belmont Gazette was discon- 
tinued, and its material removed to Mineral Point, and used 
in the publication of the Miners' Free Press, while the pro- 
prietors of the Gazette, James Clarke & Co,, established at 
Burlington the Wisconsin Territorial Gazette and Burling- 
ton Advertiser. 

No small portion of the columns of these newspapers was 
occupied with articles in relation to the comparative import- 
ance and growth of the different towns. While Green Bay 
and Prairie du Chien were the oldest, and Mineral Point had 
been a town of considerable importance for seven or eight 
years when Milwaukee first made metropolitan pretensions, 
yet its superior advantages soon placed it beyond all ques- 
tions of rivalry and it became the acknowledged metropolis 
of the Territory. 

But there were local jealousies and rivalries within its 
own borders which resulted in the organization of two mu- 
nicipal corporations. One was called "Milwaukee on the 
West side of the River," the otlier '' Milwaukee on the East 
side of the River." On the west side an election for five 
trustees was held on the 4th of February and resulted in the 
election of W. R. Longstreet, Byron Kilbourn, Lucius I. 
Barber, B. W. Finch and S. D. Cowles. 

Byron Kilbourn was elected president, N. F. Hyer, clerk, 
W. P. Proudfit, assessor, Paul Burdick, marshal and I. A. 
Lapham, surveyor and engineer, and thus was organized 
the first municipal corporation in the city of Milwaukee. 

On the IGth of Februar}-, Solomon Juneau. G. D. Dous- 
man, Samuel Hinman, A. A. Bird and William A. Pren- 



2^6 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Tiss were elected trustees for the town of Milwaukee on the 
east side of the river. Solomon Juneau was elected presi- 
dent. 

On the 28tli of January, the " Milwaukee County Agri- 
cultural Society " was formed^ a constitution adopted, and 
the following oflScers elected: 

Byron Kilbourn, President; Solomon Juneau, 1st Vice- 
President; SylvesterPettibone, 2nd Vice-President; Hugh 
Wedge, 3rd Vice-President; I. A. LapHxIM, Secretary; Wm. 
A. Prentiss, Cor. Secretary; Samuel Hinman, Treasurer; 
James H. Rogers, George D. Dousman, John Mander- 
ville, John Ogden, David S. Hollister, W. R. Longstreet, 
and Henry M. Hubbard, Directors. 

The first Tuesday in October was fixed as the time of 
holding the first fair, and premiums to the amount of one 
hundred and sixty-eight dollars were offered. 

The year 1837 witnessed an unusual activity in the business 
of mining for copper ore. As early as 1829 copper ore was 
discovered by Mr. Henry Lander in section 9, town 4, range 
3 east, about three miles southeasterly from Mineral Point, 
and soon after another discovery was made by Mr, Hugh- 
lett on the southeast part of section 5, about half a mile 
from the first. Mr. Hughlett observed particles of copper 
ore mingled with the mass of earth which had been drawn 
out by a badger in making his burrow, and following up 
this indication he found a large body of valuable ore, 
and about the same period similar discoveries were made 
by Mr. Robinson still further north. All these and other 
discoveries were supposed to be parts of one common range, 
the extent of which had already been demonstrated to ex- 
ceed three miles in length. Much work had been done at 
different times and a large amount of copper ore had been 
raised. There were no facilities for smelting the ore nearer 
than Baltimore. Some of the ore was sent to England to be 
reduced and tested, and it was ascertained that it contained 
from 30 to 50 per cent, of pure copper. 

At the Belmont session of the Legislature an act incorpo- 
rating the "Pekatonica Copper Mining Company" was 
passed. The company was organized and the practical value 
of the copper mine was demonstrated by the production of 
a large amount of copper ingots. Litigation ensued and the 
mines have since then been unworked, but no doubt exists 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 247 

that a large amount of valuable ore still remains there and 
that it possesses large economic value. 

The location of county seats in all newly organized terri- 
tories or states is always a question that excites much in- 
terest and is often prolific of heated controversies. 

Questions of this character, during the year 1837, were 
confined to three counties, Brown, Grant and Green. 

By "An act to change the seat of justice in Brown county" 
approved December 9, 183G, it was provided that the quali- 
fied voters of the county should on the 3d Monday of Janu- 
ary, 1837, vote for ISTavarino, Astor or Depere as the future 
seat of justice. That the returns should be certified to the 
Governor, who should issue a proclamation declaring the 
result. 

The election was held and on the 1st day of February, the 
Governor issued a proclamation "that the town of Depere 
has received a large majority of the votes" and "establish- 
ing the seat of justice of said county of Brown at De- 
pere from and after the first day of April next." 

In the "Act to divide the county of Iowa" approved De- 
cember 8, 183G, it w^as enacted that all that part of Iowa 
county west of the fourth principal meridian should be a 
separate county to be called Grant. 

By the same act it was provided that Henry W. Hodges, 
James Gilmore, E, E. Brock, Dennis McCartney, and 
Francis McCartney, should be commissioners to fix the 
seat of justice of said county of Grant, on or before the first 
day of February, and that the place designated by them 
should be considered the seat of justice of said county. 
Courts were required to be held at Cassville until the neces- 
sary public buildings should be erected at the seat of justice. 

The commissioners met at the prescribed time and selected 
and agreed upon the southeast quarter of section 3, town 4, 
range 3 west, which they fixed and designated as the 
county seat of Grant county. 

Soon after Hon. G. M. Price laid out a towTi on the tract 
so selected, which was called Lancaster, and it has hitherto 
remained the undisturbed county seat of that county. Mr. 
Price advertised "an extensive sale of lots," to take place on 
the 1st of May. The town immediately commenced to 
grow, and its progress has been continued and uninter- 
rupted. 



248 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

The same "act to divide the county of Iowa," prescribed 
that towns 1, 2, 3 and 4, of ranges 6, 7, 8 and 9, should 
constitute the county of Green, and the seat of justice be 
established at the town of New Mexico. 

The difficulty in determining where the county seat was, 
grew out of the doubt as to where "New Mexico" was. Mr. 
Jacob Andrick claimed that he had laid off a town in the 
summer of 1836 which he called New Mexico, and he 
charged that Mr. Joseph Payne, owning other land a quar- 
ter of a mile distant, finding that a bill was about to pass 
fixing the seat of justice at New Mexico, laid off a town on 
his land which he called by the same name — New Mexico. 
Mr. Payne denied that Mr. Andrick had ever had any 
town plat recorded, and claimed that the town which he had 
laid out in the summer, but had not recorded, was called 
"Mexico," and not "New Mexico," and that the only genuine 
New Mexico" was the plat recorded by him (Payne) Novem- 
ber 29, 1836, The controversy remained undetermined for 
about two years, when in pursuance of a special law, a vote 
of the people determined that neither place should be the 
county seat, and selected the present site, which was 
called Monroe. 

In the subdivision of the county of Milwaukee into other 
counties, towns 1, 2, 3 and 4, of range 10, constituting the 
towns of Avon, Spring Valley, Magnolia and Union, did not 
form a part of any county, but remained an isolated range 
of towns between the counties of Green and Rock, until 
subsequently attached to Rock county by an act approved 
June 21, 1838. 

Early in this year John S, Horner, Secretary of the Ter- 
ritory, and William B. Slaughter, Register of the Land 
Office at Green Bay, made a mutual arrangement with each 
other to swap offices. They went to Washington, and both 
being Virginians and in favor with General Jackson, they 
had no difficulty in obtaining his assent to the arrange- 
ment, in accordance with which William B. Slaughter 
was appointed Secretary of the Territory and John S. 
Horner, Register of the Green Bay Land Office. 

In consequence of the absence of the new Register, the 
Land Office was not opened until about the 1st of June, 
when the land sales were resumed and large amounts of 
the public lands were sold. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 249 

Numerous post routes had been established by Congress 
in different parts of the Territory, but tlie postal facilities 
were not great. 

On the 7th of June proposals were invited by the Post- 
master-General (Amos Kendall) for carrying the mail from 
January 1, 1838, to June 30, 1842, on the different post routes, 
but most of them were to be carried but once a week. On 
three of the routes the mail was to be carried twice a week. 
These were. Mineral Point to Cassville, Elk Grove to Prairie 
du Chien, and Prairie du Chien to Galena. On five of the 
routes it was to be carried tri-weekly. These were Milwau- 
kee to Green Bay, Green. Bay to Fort Winnebago, Fort 
Winnebago to Mineral Point, Mineral Point to Galena — the 
three last in stages, and from Chicago to Milwaukee in four- 
horse post coaches — and there was not to be a daily mail 
throughout the Territory. 

In February, 1837, postoffices were established at Chase's 
Point, Horace Chase, postmaster ; Moundville, John C. 
Kellogg, postmaster ; Madison, John Catlin, postmaster ; 
Elk Grove, Joseph Perry, postmaster, and Cassville, Rich- 
ard Ray, postmaster, and during the summer a postoffice 
was established at Watertown, and William M. Dennis ap- 
pointed postmaster. 

On the 22d of May Judge William C. Frazer held at De- 
pere his first term of court, which continued until the 30th 
of May. No civil cases were tried in consequence of the 
disarrangement of records and papers. The criminal calen- 
dar, however, was generally disposed of. Maw-zaw-mon- 
nee-hah, a AVinnebago Indian, was indicted for the murder 
of Pierre Pauquette at Fort Winnebago the previous Oc- 
tober. The prisoner was defended by John S. Horner, who 
was appointed by the court for that purpose. The evidence 
left no doubt of the guilt of the accused, who was found 
guilty of murder, and sentenced to be hung on the first day 
of September. 

The cases of Amable Carbonno, for the murder of liis 
wife, and of two Indians for the murder of Ellsworth 
Burnett, were transferred to Milwaukee county for trial. 
Joseph Dutcher was convicted of burglary and sentenced 
to seven years' solitary imprisonment in the county jail at 
hard labor and a fine of one hundred dollars. 

John 0"Donnell was convicted of keeping a disorderly 



250 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

house and selling liquor to an Indian, and was fined fifty 
dollars for the first offense, and one hundred for the second. 

Judging by newspaper comments, Judge Frazer's first 
appearance on the bench in Brown county was highly cred- 
itable, and in marked contrast with the manner in which 
his judicial functions were subsequently performed. 

Judge Frazer's first term of court at Milwaukee was held 
on 14th June. 

The two Menomonee Indians, Ash-e-co-bo-ma and Ash-o- 
wa, indicted in Brown county for the murder of Ellsworth 
Burnett, on the bank of Rock river in the month of ISTovem- 
ber, 1835, were tried. Their trials were separate. The counsel 
for the prosecution was W. IsT. Gardner, district attor- 
ney, and Hans Crocker; for the defense, H. K Wells and 
J. E. Arnold. The jury returned a verdict of guilty against 
Ash-e-co-bo-ma, the father, who was sentenced to be hung 
on the first day of September. A nol pros, was entered by 
the district attorney, by the advice of the court, in the case 
of the younger Indian. 

Am able Carbonno, indicted for the murder of his wife in 
Brown county, was so reduced by sickness and long confine- 
ment that he had to be brought into court upon a bed, 
in which condition he was tried. The prosecution was con- 
ducted by F. Perrin and J. E. Arnold, and the defense by 
Henry S. Baird. He was found guilty of manslaughter and 
sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the common jail of 
Brown county, and to pay a fine of one thousand dollars. 

The sentence was superseded by his death, which resulted 
from his disease, within twenty -four hours after the rendi- 
tion of the verdict. 

On the 31st of May, 1837, Augustus A. Bird, one of the 
commissioners for the erection of public buildings at Madi- 
son, left Milwaukee with thirty-six workmen with six yoke 
of oxen, and all the necessary mechanical tools, provisions, 
cooking utensils, etc., to enable operations at the capital to 
be commenced immediately. There was no road at that 
time from Milwaukee to Madison, and the party were com- 
pelled to make one for their teams and wagons as they went 
along. It rained incessantly and the obstructions to their 
progress presented by the drenched ground, fallen trees, un- 
bridged streams, including Rock River at Watertown and 
the Crawfish at Milford, hills, ravines and marshes, and the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 251 

devious course which they necessarily pursued, so delayed 
them that they did not reach Madison until the 10th of June. 
Notwithstanding all these and other eniharrassments, they 
made such progress that they were able to lay the corner 
stone of the capitol on the 4th of July, but by the end of 
the year 1837, the only progress made was the erection of 
the walls of the basement. 

Peter Hill Engle was the acting and active member of 
the committee appointed to select and purchase a library for 
the use of the Territory with the money ($5,000) appropri- 
ated by Congress for that purpose. In the performance of 
that duty he went to the eastern cities, where he could best 
execute his mission as well as consult his colleagues. Be- 
fore the 1st of July he returned to Burlington with a well- 
selected assortment of valuable books, the selection of 
which was approved by Senators Clayton and Linn and 
Delegate Jones who were associated with him on the com- 
mittee. 

The books were delivered to James Clarke, who had been 
appointed librarian, and who opened and arranged them in 
a convenient and handsome style in a commodious room 
procured for that purpose. The library cost nearly the 
whole amount appropriated for its purchase and contained 
about twelve hundred volumes of law and miscellany, about 
two-thirds of which were law books, including valuable 
state papers, and the remainder standard miscellaneous 
works. 

The event of the year 1837, which had a more marked ef- 
fect upon the business of the whole country than any other, 
was beyond question the suspension of specie pa^'ment by 
nearly all the banks throughout the whole country in the 
months of May and June. The effect was as visible in 
Wisconsin as elsewhere, although it had as yet no banks or- 
ganized and in operation. Its tendency was to check immi- 
gration to a considerable degree and to affect injuriously 
for a time the prosperity of those who had already estab- 
lished themselves in their new homes. 

But the recuperative powers and energy of the indefatiga- 
ble pioneers of the new Territory could not long be re- 
strained as was demonstrated by the successful progress 
which they soon exhibited. 



253 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The second session of the first Legislative Assembly of the 
Territory convened at Burlington on the 6th day of Nov- 
ember, 1837. 

Some changes in the membership of both Houses had 
taken place since the adjournment of the first session; in 
the Council by resignation and in the House of Representa- 
tives by death as well as resignations. 

In the Council, Henky S. Baird, a member from Brown 
county, resigned, and on the first day of the session the cer- 
tificate of Joseph Dickinson was presented as his succes- 
sor, and he was admitted to the seat. 

The seat of Mr. Dickinson was contested by Alexander 
J. Irwin, on the ground that Mr. Dickinson was postmaster 
at Green Bay. On the 21st the seat was declared vacant bj' 
the Council, and it was resolved that Alexander J. Irwin 
is entitled to the vacant seat, and the Sergeant-at-Arms was 
directed to proceed forthwith to Green Ba}^, and inform Mr. 
Irw^in of the action of the Council, which he did, and on the 
26th of December, more than a month afterward, Mr. Irwin 
appeared and took the seat. 

This result he regarded as retributive justice, he having at 
the previous session been deprived of his seat as member of 
the House, on the same ground, although he had resigned 
his office before the commencement of the session. 

Mr. Vineyard, one of the members from Iowa county, 
did not take his seat until the 18th of January, two days be- 
fore the adjournment of the session. 

In the House of Represensatives, the seat of Col. Hosea 
T. Camp, a member fri)m Dubuque county, was rendered va- 
cant by his death. On the 5th of March he was returning 
to his home, a short distance from Dubuque, in the night, 
on horse-back, when the horse fell, threw him and caused 
his death. 

A. W. McGreggor, who resided opposite Prairie duChien, 
and for whom the town of McGreggor was named, was 
elected to fill the vacancy which Col. Camp's death created. 

Gen. Albert G. Ellis, a member of the House from 
Brown county, resigned his seat and Charles C. Sholes 
was elected his successor. 

Messrs. James H. Lockwood and James B. Dallam, the 
two members from Crawford county, both resigned their 
seats, and that of the first was filled by Jean Brunett, and 
of the last by Ira B. Bronson. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1837. 053 

The Council was organized by the election of Arthur B. 
Inghram of Demoines county, president, and George Beatty 
of Mineral Point, secretary. 

In the House Isaac Leffler of Demoines county was 
elected speaker and John Catlin of Madison, chief clerk. 

The Governor's message was delivered in person on the 
second day of the session to the two Houses assembled in 
the Representatives' Hall. It was marked by those features 
of sound, practical, common-sense which pervaded all his 
official utterances as well as his official acts. 

In recommending to the Legislature to memorialize Con- 
gress to pass a pre-emption law, he said 

" Land was the immediate gilt of God to man, and from the earliest history of the 
world was designed for cultivation and improvement, and should cease to be an object of 
speculation. The just and proper policy of the government would be to reduce the price 
of the public lands and sell them to the actual settler alone. The public domain would be 
sold in a short period of tin\e. Indian wars would cease to exist. The frontiers woidd be 
settled by a brave and hardy race of men who would be a barrier to Indian encroach- 
ment, and there would be no necessity of maintaining military posts for the protection of 
our frontiers . " 

This session of the Legislative Assembly was not marked 
by any events of peculiar interest. The Governor, in his 
message, recommended, as he had at the previous session, a 
codification of the laws, but nothing was done in that di- 
rection, except to provide, by resolution, for the printing, as 
an appendix to the pamphlet laws of the session, of one 
hundred and twenty -five acts specified by their titles, se- 
lected from those then in force. The provisions of this 
resolution, however, were never complied with. 

The whole number of acts passed at this session was one 
hundred and six. 

Of these, eighteen related to the laying out and organiza- 
tion of counties, locating county seats, and to town, village 
and city organization; ten to the establishment of eighteen 
different seminaries and universities; nine to the location of 
roads; and thirty-six to the general conduct of ths public 
affairs of the Territory, There were also passed thirty-two 
private acts, of which one was to incorporate a bank at 
Prairie du Chien, which was disapproved by Congress and 
never went into effect; six to grant divorces, all of which 
took effect immediately after, and some, perhaps, before 
their passage. 

Of the public acts, the two most important were the act 
providing for taking another census, and the act abolishing 



254 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

imprisonment for debt, which rehc of barbarism had con- 
tinued in force, by operation of the laws of Michigan, upon 
the organization of the Territory. Among the eighteen uni- 
versities and seminaries estabhshed was the " University 
of the Territory of Wisconsin" at Madison, to which Con- 
gress was by joint resolution urged to make an appropriation 
of 120,00 ) in money, and two townships of land. The money 
was not appropriated. But on the 12th of June, 1838, Con- 
gress made an appropriation of the amount of land asked 
for, which was the fundamental endowment of that noble 
University, whose spacious buildings now adorn the capital 
of our state, and whose facilities and capacity for educating 
its youth reflect much credit upon those who have mani- 
fested so great an interest, and such untiring perseverance 
in promoting its welfare. 



It was at this session that an act was passed "to incorpo- 
rate the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company," 
which contained, among other things, an authority to the 
company to apply to Congress for an appropriation in 
money or lands to aid in the construction of its works. In 
pursuance of this authority application was made, and an 
appropriation obtained in June, 1838, of the odd-numbered 
sections on a belt of territory five miles in width on each 
side of the line of the proposed canal. This grant of land, 
if it had been judiciously managed, would have produced a 
fund adequate for the construction of a canal connecting 
Rock River with Lake Michigan, which would have been 
followed, no doubt, by slack water navigation on Rock 
River, providing a cheap means of transit to market of the 
bulky agricultural products of the extensive and fertile 
valley of Rock River, and of other parts of the state and of 
Illinois. But instead of the blessing it might have been, it 
proved a curse and a blight upon the early prosperity of the 
Territory, owing mainly to the antagonisms which grew up 
between the officers of the canal company and the territo- 
rial officers entrusted with the disposition of the lands 
granted by Congress, and of their proceeds, and to the con- 
flicts between the beneficiaries of the land grant and some 
of the leading politicians of the times. 

It is intended to devote the last chapter of this work 
exclusively to the history of the Milwaukee and Rock 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 255 

River canal and its incidents, and therefore it is not neces- 
sary to say more in this connection. 

On the 20th of January, 1838, in pursuance of a resolution 
adopted on the 17th, the Legislative Assembly adjourned 
to meet at the same Dlace on the second Monday of June. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 

The second session of the first Legislative Assembly 
which commenced in November, 1837, was extended twenty 
days into January, 1838, but to preserve the continuity of 
its proceedings, they were all referred to in the last 
chapter. 

For the same reason the proceedings of the second session 
of the 25th Congress, which commenced on the first Mon- 
day of December, 1837, so far as they affect Wisconsin, will 
be collated in this chapter. 

The 24:th of February of this year will ever be memorable 
as that upon which was enacted one of the most heart- 
rending tragedies that ever resulted from the barbarous 
practice of duelling. It was the sacrifice of the life of Hon. 
Jonathan Cilley, a member of the House of Representa- 
tives from the State of Maine, in an "affair of honor" with 
Hon. Wm. J. Graves, a member from the State of Ken- 
tucky. 

This duel derives its interest for the peoj^le of Wiscon- 
sin from tlie fact that Hon. George W. Jones, then the del- 
egate in Congress from Wisconsin, was the "friend" and 
second of Mr. Cilley in the terrible tragedy, which is a suf- 
ficient reason for giving a detailed account of the events 
which led to, and the circumstances which attended the fatal 
meeting. 

James Watson Webb was the editor of the New York 
Courier and Enquirer. In a discussion in the House on the 
12th February, Mr. Cilley was reported in the Globe, while 
speaking of the Courier and Enquirer, to have made re- 
marks to the following effect: He knew nothing of the 



25a HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

editor, but if he is the same who once brought grave 
charges against an institution (Bank of the United States) 
from which he was said to have received afterwards 
$52,000 in facihties, he (Mr. Cilley) did not think that any- 
thing which the editor had said deserved to be noticed by 
Congress. 

On the 21st of February Mr. Graves had a friendly inter- 
view with Mr. Cilley, in which he presented to the latter a 
note from J. W. Webb, which Mr. Cilley declined to re- 
ceive. There were no witnesses to the conversation 
between Messrs. Graves and Cilley in that interview. 

Subsequently on the same day Mr. Graves addressed the 
following note to Mr. Cilley — 

"In the interview which I had with you this morning, when you declined receiving from 
me the note of Colonel J. W. Webb, asking whether you were correctly reported in the 
Globe, in what you are there represented to have said of him in this House on the 12th inst., 
you will please say whether you did not remark in substance, that in declining to receive the 
note, you hoped I would not consider it in any respect, disrespectful to me, and that tha 
ground on which you rested your declining to receive the note was distinctly this: That 
you could not consent to get yourself into personal difficulties with conductors of public 
journals for what you might think proper to say in debate, and that you did not rest your 
objection in our interview upon any personal objections to Colonel Webb as a gentleman." 

Mr. Cilley immediately made the following reply: 

" The note which you just placed in my hand has been received. In reply I have to state 
that in your interview with me this morning, when you proposed to deliver a communica- 
tion f I'om Col. Wkbb, of the New "Sork Courier and Enquirer, I declined to receive it be- 
cause I chose to be drawn into no controversy with him. I neither affirmed or denied 
anything in regard to his character, but when you remarked that this course on my part 
might place you in an unpleasant situation, I stated to you, and now repeat, that I in- 
tended by the refusal no disrespect to you." 

On the next day (22d) Mr. Graves addressed to Mr. Cilley 
the following note: 

" Your note of yesterday, in reply to mine of that date, is inexplicit, imsatisfactory, and 
Insufficient; among other things in this: that in declining to receive Col. Webb's communi- 
cation, it does not disclaim any exception to him personally as a gentleman. I have 
therefore to inquire whether you declined to receive his communication on the ground of 
any personal exception to him as a gentleman, or a man of honor? A categorical answer 
is expected." 

To this note, Mr. Cilley on the same day, made the fol- 
lowing reply : 

" Your note of this date has just been placed in my hands. I regret that mine of yester- 
day was not satisfactory to you, but I cannot admit the right on your part to propound the 
question to which you ask a categorical answer, and therefore decline any further re- 
sponse to it." 

The next day (23d) at a few minutes before noon, no fur- 
ther communication between the parties having intervened. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 257 

a challenge from Mr. Graves was presented by Hon. Henry 
A. Wise to Mr. Cilley, in the following words: 

"As you have declined accepting a communication which I bore to you from Col. "Webb, 
and as by your note of yesterday you have refused to decline on grounds which would 
exonerate me from all responsibility growing out of the affair, I am left no other alter- 
native but to ask that satisfaction which is recognized among gentlemen. My friend, 
Hon. H. A. Wise, is authorized by me to make the arrangements suitable to the occa- 
sion." 

Mr. Cilley, after some delay, secured the friendly serv- 
ices of Hon. George W. Jones as the bearer of his accept- 
ance of the challenge. Mr. Jones, however, in a published 
letter to the people of Wisconsin, dated June 20th, says: 

" It is now known that I came into the controversy at a very late period (only twenty- 
three hours before the fatal meeting), after all the terms as to time, weapon, distance, etc., 
had been agreed upon." 

Mr. Cilley's letter, accepting the challenge, was delivered 
by Mr. Jones at the hour of 5 P. M. on the same day the chal- 
lenge was received, and was in these brief terms: 

"Your note of this morning has been received. Mj" friend. Gen. Jones, will 'make the 
arrangements suitable to the occasion.'' " 

The following terms of meeting were then agreed upon 
between the seconds, Messrs. Wise and Jones, in conform- 
ity with those already agreed upon between Mr. Cilley' 
and his friends: the place to be such as might be agreed 
upon between them at 12 M. the next day, the 2-tth. The 
weapons to be rifles. The parties placed side to side at 
eighty yards distance from each other; to hold the rifles at 
arms length downward; the rifles to be cocked and triggers 
set; the words to be "Gentlemen are you ready?" After 
which, neither answering "No," the words shall be in regular 
succession "Fire-one, two, three, four." Neither party is to 
raise his weapon from the downward position until the word 
"fire" and neither shall fire before the word "fire" nor 
after the word "four." The position of the parties at 
the end of the line to be determined by lot. The second 
of the party losing the choice of position, shall have the 
giving of the word. Each party may have on the ground, 
besides his second, a surgeon and two other friends. The 
rifles to be loaded in presence of the seconds. 

It was then agreed between the seconds, at about noon of 
the 24th, and after some correspondence and delay in relation 
to a rifle for Mr. Graves, that the meeting should take place 
at 3 P. M. of that day; that they should meet at the Ana- 
costa bridge on the road to Marlborough, Md., between the 

17 



258 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

hours of li and 2i P. M., and that if either got there first he 
should wait for the other, and that they would thence pro- 
ceed out of the District. The parties met at the bridge, Mr. 
CiLLEY and his party arriving first; and all proceeded about 
2 P. M. to the place of meeting. The seconds marked off 
the ground and decided the choice of positions. Mr. Wise 
won the choice, and Mr. Jones had the giving of the word. 

Shortly after 3 o'clock P. M., the rifles were loaded in the 
presence of the seconds; the parties were called together; 
they were fully instructed by Mr. Jones as to their positions, 
and the words twice repeated to them as they would be and 
as they were delivered to them in the exchange of shots. 
After this they were ordered to their respective positions, 
the seconds assuming their places and the friends accom- 
panying the seconds, were disposed along the line of fire to 
observe that each obeyed the terms of meeting. 

Mr. Jones gave the words distinctly, audibly and in regu- 
lar succession, and the parties exchanged shots without vi- 
olating in the least a single instruction. They both missed. 

The friends generally, then assembled to hear what was 
to be said. Mr. Jones then inquired of Mr. Wise whether 
his friend (Mr. Graves) was satisfied, Mr. Wise replied 

"These gentlemen have come here without animosity towards each other, they are fight- 
ing merely upon a point of honor. Cannot Mr. Cilley assign some reason for not receiv- 
ing Col. Webb's commimieatlon or make some disclaimer which will relieve Mr. Graves 
from his position." 

After Mr. Jones was informed by Mr. Wise that the chal- 
lenge was suspended for the purpose of explanation, he went 
to Mr. Cilley, his principal, and then said to Mr, Wise, as 
Mr. Jones remembered a few hours afterwards what he 
said: 

"I am authorized by my friend Mr. Cilley to say that in declining to receive the note 
from Mr. Graves, purporting to be from Col. Webb, he meant no disrespect to Mr. Graves, 
because he entertained for him then as he now does the highest respect and most kindly 
feelings, but that he declined to receive the note because he chose not to be dragged into 
any controversy with Col. Webb." 

The recollection of Mr. Wise in regard to the answer of 
Mr. Jones was, that Mr. Jones also said in his answer: 

"My friend refuses to disclaim disrespect for Col. Webb, because he does not choose to 
be drawn into an expression of opinion as to him." 

Much conversation then ensued between the seconds and 
their friends, but no nearer approach to reconciliation being 
made, the challenge was renewed, another shot was ex- 
changed and both missed. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 259 

After this the seconds and the friends again assembled, 
the challenge was again withdrawn, and a very similar con- 
versation to that after the first exchange of shots ensued. 

Mr. Jones then remarked: 

"Mr. Wise, my friend, in coming to tlie ground and exchanging shots with Mr. Graves, 
has shown to the world, that in declining to receive the note of Col. Webb, he did not do so 
because he dreaded a eontrovers3'. He has shown himself a brave man and disposed to 
render satisfaction to Mr. Graves. I do think that he has done so and that the matter 
should end here." 

To this Mr. Wise replied 

''Mr. CiLLEY has already expressed his respect for Mr. Graves in the ivritten corre- 
spondence, and Mr. Graves does not require of Mr. Cillet a certificate of character for 
Col. Webb; he considers himself about not only to deserve the respect due to himself, 
but to defend the honor of his friend Col, Webb." 

Mr. Wise thinks, he added, 

"Mr. Graves only insists that he has not borne the note of a man who is not a man of 
honor and not a gentleman." 

These last words Mr. Jones does not recollect. 

After much more conversation and ineffectual attempts to 
adjust the matter, the challenge was again renewed; and 
while the friends were again loading the rifles for the third 
exchange of shots, Mr. Jones and Mr. Wise walked apart 
and each proposed to the other anxiously to settle the af- 
fair. 

Mr. Wise asked Mr. Jones 

"If Mr. CiLLEY could not assign the reason for declining to receive the note of Col. Webb 
that he did not hold himself accountable to Col. AVebb for words spoken in debate?" 

Mr. Jones replied that 

" Mr. CiLLEY would not wish to be understood as expressing the opinion whether he 
was or was not accountable for words spoken in debate." 

Mr. Wise then asked Mr. Jones whether 

" Mr. CiLLEY would not say that in declining to receive the note of Col. Webb, he meant 
no disrespect to Mr. Graves either directly or indirectly ." 

To this Mr. Jones replied affirmatively, adding 

" Mr. CiLLEY entertains the highest respect for Mr. Graves, but declined to receive the 
note because he chose not to be drawn into a controversy with Col. Webb." 

In further explanatory conversation, Mr. Wise said to 
Mr. Jones: 

"If this matter is not determined this shot, and is not settled, I will propose to shorten 
the distance." 

To which Mr. Jones replied 

" After this shot without effect I will entertain the proposition." 

The parties then exchanged the third shot. It was fatal. 



2 GO HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

The bullet from Mr. Graves rifle struck Mr. Cilley in the 
left iliac region, and passed through the right lumhar re- 
gion, completely severing the aorta or main artery of the 
heart. The only words he spoke were " I'm wounded", and 
instantly died. 

Mr. Graves, through Mr, Wise, expressed to Mr. Jones a 
desire to see Mr. Cilley. When Mr. Jones approached Mr. 
Graves to inform him that his request would be granted, 
he asked Mr. Jones, " How is he?"' Mr. Jones replied, " My 
friend is dead, sir." Mr. Graves then went to his carriage. 

On the 28th of February, 1838, a committee was appointed 
by the House of Representatives, to investigate the causes 
which led to the death of Mr. Cilley and the circum- 
stances connected therewith. The committee on the 21st of 
April submitted a report accompanied by a large amount of 
testimony. 

The report concluded with resolutions that Mr. Graves be 
expelled from the House, and that Messrs. Wise and Jones 
be censured. 

Two minority reports were also presented. 

The reports of the committee and the resolutions occupied 
the attention of the House from the 21st of April to the 10th 
of May, when by a vote of 103 to 78, the whole subject was 
laid on the table, and the reports and documents were or- 
dered to be printed. 

On the 4th of July a motion was made that the House do 
proceed to the consideration of the report when the motion 
to consider was ordered to lie on the table, and nothing fur- 
ther was done on the subject, except that the Senate passed 
a bill to prohibit the giving or accepting within the District 
of Columbia of a challenge to fight a duel, which was not 
acted upon by the House. 

The act of December 3, 1836, fixing the seat of government 
at Madison, prescribed that the commissioners should — 

" Agree upon a plan of said buildings and issue proposals, giving due notice thereof, 
and contract for the erection of said buildings without delay." 

No "proposals" were issued during the year 1837, but the 
expenditures were made by the commissioners according to 
their own discretion, and amounted at the end of that year 
to the sum of $17,900.12, and the walls of the basement were 
erected, but none of the superstructure. 

On the 20th of February, 1838, notice was published that 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 261 

sealed proposals would be received until the loth day of 
April, for the completion of the capitol above the basement 
story. The contract was let to James Morrison, and work 
progressed under the contract. 

By an act of Congress approved June 18, 1838, a further 
appropriation of twenty thousand dollars was made — 

"To defray the expenses of completing the public buildings in the Territory of Wis- 
consin, which are now commenced and partially completed." 

The annual civil service appropriation bill approved April 
6, 1838, contained an appropriation of $9,100 for compensa- 
tion of the Governor, Judges, and Secretary, and of 829,625 
for contingent expenses, pay and mileage of the members 
of the Legislative Assembly, officers of the Council, taking 
census, printing, and furniture and rent of buildings. 

During the year 1837 three separate treaties with Indian 
tribes had been made, which were destined within a few 
years to be of the greatest interest and advantage to Wis- 
consin. They were submitted by the President to the Sen- 
ate for their consideration at its next session, commencing 
in December of that year. 

The tribes with which these treaties were made were the 
Chippewas, the Sioux, and the Winnebagoes. 

Gov. Dodge, Governor and Superintendent of Indian Af- 
fairs, together with Gen. William R. Smith, then residing 
at Huntingdon, Pa., but immediately after and, until his 
death in Wisconsin, were appointed commissioners to effect 
a treaty with the Chippewa Indians for a cession of their 
lands to the United States. 

The month of July was appointed as the time, and Saint 
Peters (the confluence of the St. Peters and Mississippi 
rivers) as the place for having a " talk" with the Chippewas 
with a view to the cession. 

Unavoidable delays prevented Gen. Smith from reaching 
the ground in season, and Gen. Dodge was the sole repre- 
sentative of the United States in conducting the negotia- 
tions. 

The treaty with the Chippewas was concluded on the 29th 
day of July, 1837. 

In the treaty with the Sioux the United States was repre- 
sented by Joel K Poinsett, then Secretary of War, and the 
negotiations were conducted at Washington, where the 
chiefs and braves of the Sioux nation had gone for the pur- 



202 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

pose of having a " talk" with their "Great Father." The 
treaty was signed at Washington on the 29th day of Sep- 
tember, 1837. 

Carey A. Harris, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, acting 
for the United States, concluded a treaty at Washington 
with the Winnebagoes on the first day of November, 18o7. 

By these treaties, and those previously made, the Indian 
title to all the land in the present State of Wisconsin, and a 
considerable part of Minnesota, was extinguished, except a 
portion occupied by the Menomonees and a few small reser- 
vations. 

One of the minor effects of these treaties was to extin- 
guish forever the hopes of the heirs of Jonathan Carver 
and their assigns, that their claim to the so-called " Carver 
grant" might in some unknown way be made available. 

But the most important effect was that the extinguish- 
ment of the Indian title opened to settlement and occupa- 
tion, and to the application of the subsequently enacted 
pre-emption and homestead laws, all that extensive region, 
the waters of which form those great arteries of commerce 
in lumber, the Wisconsin, Black, Chippewa, and St. Croix 
rivers, with the Wolf and others which empty into Green 
Bay. 

Although these treaties were submitted to the Senate at 
an early period of the session, yet their ratification was so 
long delayed that apprehensions arose in the minds of those 
interested in them that possibly they might not be ratified. 

Such was the extent of these fears, that in the message of 
Governor Dodge to the Legislative Assembly, at the extra 
session held in June, 1838, he deemed it his duty earnestly 
to recommend to the Legislative Assembly to adopt a me- 
morial — 

"Asking the ratiflcatiou by the United States Senate of the treaties made with tlie Win- 
nebagoes, Sioux and Chippewa Indians, for the extinguishment of their title to countiy 
•within the limits of this territory. Until recently, no doubts were entertained of the rati- 
fication of the treaties in question." 

Such a memorial was adopted. 

The message of Governor Dodge was delivered on the 
11th day of June, and it is a noteworthy coincidence that all 
three of the treaties were ratified by the Senate on the same 
day, and perhaps in the same hour in which the Governor's 
message was being read. 

Previous to the 12th of June, 1838, the jurisdiction of the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 2G3 

Surveyor General of Ohio embraced Michigan and "Wis- 
consin. An act of Congress approved on that day, created 
the office of Surveyor General for Wisconsin, comprehend- 
ing all of Wisconsin, as bounded by the act of 18-jG, 
establishing the Territory. 

The office was located at Dubuque, and Albekt G. Ellis 
was appointed the first Survej^or General, with a salary of 
fifteen hundred dollars, and three hundred and fifty dollars 
for office rent, fuel and other incidental expenses. 

By an act of Congress approved June 12, 1838, the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury was authorized to set apart and re- 
serve from sale, two entire townships of land for the use and 
support of a university, to be located in tracts of not less 
than an entire section. 

An act had already been passed by the Territorial Legis- 
lature, approved January 19, 1838, to establish at or near 
Madison a university, tlie name of which should be "The 
University of Wisconsin." It was to — 

"Be under the government of a board of visitors, not exceeding twenty-one in number, 
of whom the Governor, Secretary of the Territory, Jvidges or" the Supreme Court, and tlie 
President of the University shall be part, and Bi'shnell B. Cary, JIarshall M. Stroxg, 
Byron Kilbourn, William N. Gardner. Henry Stringhaji, Charles R. Brush, Charles 
C. P. Arndt, John Catlin, George H. Slaughter, 1)avid Brigham, John F. Schermerhorn, 
William W. Coriell, George Beatty, Henry L. Dodge and Augustus A. Bird the 
remainder." 

The act provided that the first meeting should be held on 
the first Monday in July, and might be adjourned from time 
to time. 

The first meeting of the board of visitors was adjourned 
from the first to the third Monday of Jul}", when Hon. 
Charles Dunn and Wm. C. Frazer, Judges of the Supreme 
Court, A. A. Bird, John Catlin and Wm. JST. Gardner were 
present. Judge Frazer was appointed Chairman and 
William IST. Gardner, Secretar3^ There being no quorum 
present, the board adjourned until Monday of the second 
week of the next session of the Legislative Assembly. 

The next meeting of the Board was held in December pur- 
suant to adjournment. Officers and committees were ap- 
pointed and steps taken for the selection of a site, and to 
have the lands donated by Congress selected, and specifi- 
cally appropriated for the use of the university. 

At the second session of the 21:th Congress there were fif- 



264 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

teen new post routes established, and in June, 1838, there 
were eighty post-offices in the Territory east of the Missis- 
sippi. 

These were Green Bay, Menomonee, Grand Kakalin, 
La'Fontain, Nashoto, Twin Rivers, Duck Creek, Butte de 
Morts and Depere in Brown count}^; City of Winnebago 
and Pipe Village in Calumet county; Prairie du Chien in 
Crawford county; Madison in Dane county; Cassville, Platt- 
ville, Lancaster, Sinsinawa Mound, Van Buren, Blast Fur- 
nace, Brooklyn, Port Hudson, Sinipee, Menomonee, Hazel 
Green and Gibraltar in Grant county; Centreville and New 
Mexico in Green county; Fond du Lac in Fond du Lac county; 
Mineral Point, Belmont, Elk Grove, Dodegeville, Helena, 
Moundville, Arena, Mill Seat Bend, Diamond Grove, Blue 
River, Wingville, English Prairie, Wisconsin, Gratiot's 
Grove, Wiota, Otterburn, White Oak Springs, New Dig- 
gings, Ridgeway and Willow Springs in Iowa county; Jef- 
ferson and Watertown in Jefferson county; Manitowoc in 
Manitowoc county; Milwaukee, Prairie Village, Belleterre, 
New Berlin and Oak Creek in Milwaukee county; Dekorre 
and Fort Winnebago in Portage county; Racine, Southport, 
Mount Pleasant, Aurora, Pleasant Prairie, Rochester Pike 
and Foxville in Racine county; Turtle Creek, Hume, Janes- 
ville and Outlet Koshkonongin Rock county; Sheboygan in 
Sheboygan county; Fox Lake in Dodge county; Washing- 
ton in Washington county and Delavan, Elkhorn, Troy, 
Springfield, Geneva and Franklin in Walworth county. Of 
these twenty-seven have been discontinued or have different 
names. 

There was appropriated by Congress at this session the 
sum of four thousand dollars for tlie construction of a light- 
house on Grassy Island at the head of Green Bay, The 
President was authorized to appoint one or more naval offi- 
cers upon whom was devolved various duties with reference 
to light-houses, among which was to examine and determine 
whether it was expedient to construct lighthouses or bea- 
con lights, at nearly fifty designated points. Three of these 
points were Southport, and the mouth of Sauk River and 
Kewaunee River. 

Thirty thousand dollars was appropriated for the con- 
struction of roads, viz.: From Fort Howard, via Milwaukee 
and Racine, to the state line, fifteen thousand dollars; from 



N 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 265 

Milwaukee via Madison to a point opposite Dubuque, ten 
thousand dollars, and from Fort Crawford via Fort Winne- 
bago to Fort Howard, five thousand dollars. 

The surveying-, marking and designating of the boundary 
line between the State of Michigan and Territory of AVis- 
consin, was provided for by act of Congress, and an appro- 
priation of three thousand dollars made for that purpose. 

There was granted to the Territory, by an act approved 
June 18, 1838, for the purpose of aiding in opening a canal to 
unite the waters of Lake Michigan at Milwaukee, with 
those of Rock River, all the land not theretofore disposed of 
in the odd numbered sections within the breadth of five full 
sections on each side of said canal. 

A joint resolution was adopted June 1)1, 1838, 

"That Congress do hereby dissent from, disapprove and disaffirm an act of the Legisla- 
tive Council of Wisconsin entitled 'An act to incorporate the stockholders of the State 
Bank of Wisconsin at Prairie du Chien,'' and the said act, is herety declared to be nnll 
and void and to have no force or effect whatsoever." 

Of all the legislation at this session of Congress none had 
been contemplated with more interest by the settlers upon 
that portion of the public domain in Wisconsin, which had 
not yet been offered at public sale, than an effective pre- 
emption law. 

The measure which they had hoped for, and which was 
generally advocated by the representatives from those 
states in which the public lands were situated, was one 
wdiich would confine the sales of the lands to actual settlers, 
thus preventing their absorption by speculators; provide 
homesteads to all actual bona fide settlers, and secure a per- 
manent pre-emption right upon any of the public lands be- 
fore they were offered for public sale. 

An act entitled "An act to grant pre-emption rights to 
settlers on the public land" was jjassed June 2-2, 1838, which, 
while it did not meet the hopes of the settlers, secured to 
such of them as had resided on their "claims" four months 
next preceding its passage, the right to enter their claims 
and obtain a title to them. 

The act of Congress of May 29, 1830, authorized every 
settler or occupant of the public lands prior to its passage 
and who was then in possession and cultivated any part 



266 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



t 



thereof in the year 1829, to enter not more than one hun- 
dred and sixty acres or a quarter section, to inchide his im- 
provement, upon paying to the United States the tlien 
minimum price of said land. 
The act of June 22, 1838, declared 

" That every actual settler of the public lands, beina; the head of a family, or over 
twenty-one years of age, who was in i^ossession and a housekeeper, by personal residence 
thereon, at the time of the passage of this act and for four months next preceding, shall 
be entitled to all the benefits and privileges of an act entitled ' An act to grant pre-emption 
rights to settlers on the public lands, approved May 29, ISSO,' and the said act is hereby 
revived and continued in force two years." 

It had been foreseen from the time of the establishment 
of the Territory of Wisconsin, that it would at some time 
be divided into two or more Territories. The division came, 
however, sooner than had been generally anticipated. 

By an act approved June 12, 1838, it was enacted 

" That from and after the third day of July next, all that part of the present Territory 
of Wisconsin, which lies west of the Mississippi River, and west of a line drawn due north 
from the headwaters or sources of the Mississippi to the Territorial line, shall for the 
purposes of temporary government,be and constitute a separate Territorial government 
by the name of Iowa; and after the said third day of July next, aU power and authority 
of the government of Wisconsin in and over the Territory hereby constituted shall 
cease." 

The act further provided 

" That from and after the 3rd day of July the terms of the members of the Council and 
House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin shall be deemed to have expired 
and an entirely new organization shall take place." 

It provided that the Governor should apportion the mem- 
bers of the Legislative Assembly among the several 
counties, and appoint the time of election and of the first 
meeting of the Legislature at Madison. 

The United States Marshal and Attorney for the Territory 
of Wisconsin, resided west of the Mississippi, and their 
offices therefore became vacant, and Edward James was 
appointed Marshal and Moses M. Strong Attorney for the 
reorganized Territory of Wisconsin. 

A proclamation of the President of the United States was 
issued, bearing date July 6, 1838, declaring and making 
known that public sales would be held at Green Bay on the 
22d October and 5th November, for the disposal of the pub- 
lic lands east of the Indian boundary, which had not pre- 
viously been offered for sale, and within the boundaries of 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 207 

the present counties of Columbia, Marquette, Green Lake, 
northern part of Dodge, Fond du Lac, Winnebago and 
Door. 

And also at Milwaukee on the 19th day of November and 
the 3d day of December, for the lands not previously offered 
in the south part of Dodge county, and in the counties of 
Jefferson^ Rock, Walworth, Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, 
Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee, except such sections 
as were within the limits of the grant for the Milwaukee 
and Rock River canal. 

The sales to have been held in Milwaukee were postponed 
until the next year by a proclamation of the President in 
October. 

The Legislative Assembly convened in special session at 
Burlington, on the second Monday (11th) of June, pursuant 
to a joint resolution adopted in the preceding January. 

No change had taken place in the membership of the 
council, but some changes had taken place in the composi- 
tion of the House of Representatives. At the previous ses- 
sion a charge had been made that Alexander McGregor, 
a member from Dubuque county, had accepted a bribe from 
one John Wilson, to procure a certain ferry charter at or 
near Rock Island. The matter w^as referred to a commit- 
tee, which reported that the charge was true, and that 
Wilson be brought to the bar and reprimanded, and that 
McGregor be expelled. 

Upon the consideration of the resolution in relation to 
Wilson, W. Henry Starr, Esq., an attorney, was permit- 
ted to appear for Wilson. Mr. Starr having used lan- 
guage toward Mr. Quigley which the latter regarded as 
personally offensive, and the House having refused to adopt 
a resolution to punish Mr. Starr, Mr. Quigley, on the 17th 
of Januar}^ resigned his seat. He was re-elected to fill the 
vacancy created by his own resignation. 

The consideration of the resolution for the expulsion of 
Alexander McGregor, was postponed until the first day of 
the special session, and in the meantime, soon after the ad- 
journment, he resigned his seat, and Lucius H. Lang- 
worthy was elected as his successor. 

James Collins was elected to fill the vacancy occasioned 
by the resignation of George F. Smith. 



368 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF VnSCONSIN 

The two houses were organized by the election of Arthur 
B. Ingram, President, and George Beatty, Secretary of the 
the Council, and William B. Sheldon, Speaker, and John 
Catlin, Chief Clerk of the House. The Governor's message 
was delivered in the afternoon of the first day of the session. 
The session was a short one, lasting only two weeks, having 
been held mainly for the purpose of making a new appor- 
tionment of members of the House of Representatives, based 
upon the census taken in May. Thirty-one acts were passed, 
of which six related to counties, five to roads, seven to the 
conduct of public affairs, and the remaining thirteen to 
private matters, of which four were to grant divorces. 
Among the public acts was one postponing the general elec- 
tion from the first Monday of August to the second 
Monday of September ; and another making a new appor- 
tionment of the members of the House of Representatives to 
be then elected. Of the twenty-six members, twelve were 
apportioned among the counties east of the Mississippi river, 
and fourteen among those west. This apportionment was, 
however, to be contingent upon the division of the Territory; 
upon which contingency, it was made the duty of the Gov- 
ernor to make an apportionment. Having provided that 
the next session should be held at Madison, the first Legis- 
lative Assembly of Wisconsin Territory adjourned sine die 
on the 25th of June, 1838. 

The population of the Territory in May, 1838, as shown by 
the census, was as follows: 

Brown county 3,048 

Crawford county , 1,220 

Dane county 17ii 

Dodge county 18 

Green county 494 

Grant county 2,763 

Iowa county 3,2U 

Jefferson county 466 

Milwaukee county 3,131 

Racine county 2,054 

Eock county 480 

Walworth county 1,019 

Washington county 64 

Total 18,149 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 2G'J 

On the 13th of July the Governor issued his proclamation, 
making the following apportionment : 

Crawford couuty 1 member of Council, 2 members of House. 

Iowa county , . 2 members of Council, 5 members of House. 

Grant county H members of Council, 4 members of House. 

Brown county, etc 2 members of Council, 4 members of House. 

Milwaukee county, etc 2 membei's of Council, 5 members of House. 

Racine county 2 members of Council, 3 members of House. 

Rock and Walworth counties 1 member of Council, 2 members of House. 

Green, Dane, Jefferson, and Dodge 

counties 1 member of Council, 1 member of House. 

The time fixed for the election was the second Monday in 
September, and that for the meeting of the Legislative As- 
sembly was the fourth Monday in November. 

Party lines had not yet been drawn, and the members 
were chosen without reference to, and perhaps without a 
knowledge of, their views upon national politics. Among 
those elected were soine who have since held public posi- 
tions of distinction. 

The members elect were as follows: 

Crawford County — Council, George Wilson; House of 
Representatives, Alexander McGregor and Ira B. Brun- 

SON. 

Iowa Cov't^Tx— Council, James Collins and Levi Ster- 
ling; House of Representatives, Russell Baldwin, John W. 
Blackstone, Henry M. Billings, Thomas Jenkins and 
Charles Bracken. 

Grant County — Council, James R. Vineyard and John H. 
RouNTREE; House of Representatives, Thomas Cruson, 
Nelson De^vey, Ralph Carver, and Joseph H. D. Street. 

Brown County, and the counties attached to it — Council, 
Alexander J. Irwin and Morgan L. Martin; House of 
Representatives, Ebenezer Childs, Charles C. Sholes, 
Barlow Shackelford and Jacob W. Conroe. 

Milwaukee and Washington Counties— Coitwci7, Daniel 
Wells Jr, and William A. Prentiss; House of Represent- 
atives, Lucius I. Barber, William Shew, Henry C. Skin- 
ner, Ezekiel Churchill and Augustus Story. 

Rock and Walworth Counties — Council, James Max- 
well; House of Representatives, Edw^ard V. Whiton and 
Othni Beardsley, 

Green, Pane, Jefferson and Dodge Counties — Council, 
Ebenezer Brigham; House of Representatives, Daniel S. 
Sutherland. 



270 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Racine County-Council, William Bullen and Marshall 
M. Strong; House of Representatives, Orrin R. Stevens, 
Zadoc Newman and Tristram C. Hoyt. 

At the time of the election of members of the Legislature 
an election was also had for Delegate in Congress for the 
Territory, as changed by the establishment of Iowa Terri- 
tory. 

Under date of Washington, June 20, Hon. George W. 
Jones addressed a circular letter to the people of Wisconsin, 
in which he says that he has yielded to the solicitations of 
his friends to become a candidate for delegate. The act 
changing the time of election from the first Monday of 
August to the second Monday of September, was not 
passed until the 23d of June, and the address was written 
on the supposition that the election would occur on the first 
Monday of August. For this reason Mr. Jones said — 

"I fear that I shall not be able to reach home before the day set apart for the election, 
Which will prevent my communing with you face to face, instead of through the medium 
of a printed circular." 

He however arrived at Racine on the 24:th July, on his 
return from Washington, and started the next day in a pri- 
vate carriage across the Territory for his home at Sinsinawa 
Mound, and had a few weeks before the election in which 
to make a personal canvass. Colonel Jones was also nom- 
inated at public meetings held at Milwaukee and Mineral 
Point on the 11th day of July. 

In the early part of July the name of Thomas P. Burnett 
was announced as an independent candidate for delegate. 
He canvassed the Territory very generally and made public 
addresses in many places. At two different meetings held 
in Brown county, Morgan L. Martin was nominated and 
renominated as candidate for delegate, but before the elec- 
tion he withdrew from the canvass and became a candidate 
for member of the Council and was elected. 

At a meeting of citizens of Brown county on the 26th July, 
James D. Doty was nominated as candidate for delegate, 
and on the 1st August addressed a letter to the chairman of 
that meeting, in which he declined that nomination because 
it was local, and said — 

"I hope therefore my friends will permit me to dechne the acceptance of their nomina- 
tion, as the nomination of a sinjjle county, and to express my desire, if it accords with 
their wishes, that they should submit my name to a general convention, and to tender 
them my thanks for the honor they have done me." 

At a subsequent meeting on the 8th of August, six dele- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 



271 



gates were elected to a Territorial convention to be held, at 
Madison on the 29th of August, 

Delegates were elected from several other counties, and 
the assemblage met at Madison on the 29th of August and 
put Mr. Doty in nomination as a candidate for delegate. 

The contest assumed a triangular form, the three candi- 
dates being George W. Jones, Thomas P. Burnett and 
James D. Doty. 

Judge Doty was elected, having received 1,758 votes. Mr. 
Jones received 1,174, and Mr, Burnett 920. More than 
seven hundred of the votes for Mr. Burnett were from the 
western part of the Territory, and would probably have 
been cast for Mr, Jones if Mr. Burnett had not been a 
canditate. The odium of the Graves-Cilley duel was a 
great embarrassment to Mr. Jones in the eastern part of the 
Territory and cost him many votes. 

The following is the vote by counties in detail: 



Counties. 


Doty. 


Jones. 


Burnett. 


Brown 


442 

502 

325 

133 

83 

3G 

105 

18 


35 

193 

14 

3 

15 

457 

302 

93 

37 

25 


18 




35 


Hacine 


98 


Walworth 


43 


Hock 


14 


Iowa 


327 


Grant 


307 


Oi'ciwf ord 


26 


Green 


52 


Dane 


54 








Total 


1,758 


1,174 


920 







On the 2(jth of October, Edward E. Oliver suffered the 
extreme penalty of the law — death by hanging. He was 
executed at Lancaster in Grant county, by the sheriff of 
that county for the unprovoked murder of John Russell 
at Cassville about six months previously. 



By the fourth article of the treaty with the Winnebagoes, 
made at Washington November 1, 1837, in consideration of 
the cession and relinquishment of all their lands east of the 
Mississippi, there was set apart by the United States the 
sum of two hundred thousand dollars , of which fifty thou- 



272 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

sand dollars was to be paid specifically to certain individ- 
uals named in the treaty, and the remaining one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars were to be applied to the debts of 
the nation, which might be ascertained to be justly due, 
and which might be admitted by the Indians. If the debts 
amounted to more than that sum, the creditors were to be 
paid pro rata. 

There was also set apart the further sum of one hundred 
thousand dollars, to be paid under the direction of the Presi- 
dent to the relatives and friends of said Indians having not 
less than one quarter of Winnebago blood. 

Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, and James Murray, of 
Maryland, were appointed by the President commissioners 
to adjust and pay the debts of the Winnebagoes, and to dis- 
tribute among their relatives and friends of mixed blood the 
sum so set apart for them. George W. Featherstonhaugh 
was appointed secretary of the commission. 

The determination of the question who were the creditors 
of the Indians, and what was the amount of their credits — 
the admission of the Indians having been obtained — as well 
also as the other question of what persons were to be allowed 
a share of the fund for those of mixed Winnebago blood, 
were left to the uncontrolled discretion and decision of the 
commissioners. 

The commissioners gave public notice that their office 
would be open for business at Prairie du Chien on the 6th of 
September, when they would adjudicate upon all claims 
filed with the secretary in the order in which they were 
filed. 

The whole Winnebago nation was assembled, amounting 
to about four thousand souls, men, women, and children, 
and " relatives and friends of mixed blood" innumerable. A 
large number of creditors was in attendance, and a propor- 
tionately large number and amount of claims were filed 
and acted upon. 

It would be only natural that the action of the commis- 
sioners should subject them to censorious remarks. It was 
openly charged that collusion existed between a Mr. Brod- 
HEAD, of Pennsylvania, and the commissioners. He was 
there in the capacity of attorney for claimants and persons 
of mixed blood, and it was alleged that he was always suc- 
cessful, and it was said that he received large commissions, 
which he divided with the commissioners. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1838. 273 

At the first session of the Legislative Assembly, William 
BuLLEN was chosen President of the Council, and John W. 
Blackstone, Speaker of the House. 

It met at Madison, on the 3Gth of aSTovember. 

Upon convening, it was found that the capital was in an 
unfinished state, and so much dissatisfaction existed with 
the accommodations at Madison, that it was a matter of 
doubt for two weeks, whether a temporary adjournment to 
Milwaukee would not be had. A committee appointed for 
the purpose of investigating the extent of the accommoda- 
tions, reported " that at the Madison House there was one 
room that would accommodate six persons, at the Madison 
Hotel two rooms that; would accommodate four persons, and 
at the American Hotel eight rooms, sufficient to accommo- 
date twenty-six persons. But they could not ascertain that 
more than fifty persons could be accommodated with suffi- 
cient rooms for the transaction of business." 

A resolution to remove the session to some other place 
passed one House, and would probably have passed the 
other, if there had been any satisfactory evidence that the 
accommodations at any other place in the Territory were 
any better. Under the circumstances, the Legislative As- 
sembly remained at Madison about four weeks, when they 
adJDurned from the 2M of December to the 21st of January. 

During this short session a committee of three members 
from each of the two branches was appointed to make a revis- 
ion of the laws; and two other committees, of three members 
each, to investigate the banks of the Territory, which they 
were required to visit in person. The duty of serving upon 
these committees was practically a removal of twelve of 
the thirty-nine members from the scene of their labors on 
the floor of their respective houses, and was the ostensible 
reason for the recess. 

A special messenger was appointed by joint resolution to 
proceed to Burlington and procure the quota of the laws of 
the last session, belonging to the Territory of Wisconsin. 

A joint resolution was also adopted, that James E. Ed- 
wards, with whom a contract had been entered into on the 
30th of January, for printing and binding certain laws, and 
with which he had failed to comply, be directed not to 
proceed any further with the printing and binding of said 
laws. 
18 



974 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The District Attorney of the United States was requested 
by joint resolution to examine and report whether the Ter- 
ritory had a title to the ground on which the Capitol stands. 

Moses M. Strong was appointed fiscal agent with author- 
ity to adjust all accounts for any money appropriated by 
law to defray the expenses of that session of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly, and to borrow for the use of the Legislature 
fifteen thousand dollars, in coin or in notes of the banks of 
Illinois or Missouri. 

At this December session, twenty acts were passed nearly 
all of which were of a purely local or private nature. 

The county of Walworth was organized and the county 
seat located at Elkhorn, and the counties of Manitowoc and 
Sheboygan were organized for county purposes, continuing 
attached to Brown county for judicial purposes. 

The proceedings of the board of commissioners of Milwau- 
kee county were declared legal and valid, and the commis- 
sioners were also authorized to prepare copies of the record 
of deeds, etc., from Brown county. Commissioners were 
appointed to locate the seat of justice of Green county. 

Eleven of the twenty acts related to the locating, author- 
izing or establishing roads, bridges and ferries, two incor- 
porated mining companies. 

One changed the name of the Wisconsin University of 
Green Bay to Hobart University of Green Bay, while the 
only other and the last act of this short session, approved on 
the 22d December, was "to provide for the compensation of 
the officers of the Legislative Assembly and for other pur- 
poses." The appropriation made by this act amounted to 
$6,454.14. 

After adopting a joint resolution — 

"That E. Childs, Chairman of the Committee on Arrangements of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, be instructed to procure, during the vacation, such articles as may be necessary 
for the accommodation of the Legislature during the next session," 

this first and necessarily short session was adjourned, and 
such of the members as were not engaged in committee 
work returned to their l>omes. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 275 



CHAPTER XX. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 

The proceedings of the third session of the twenty-fith 
Congress, commencing December 3, 1838, and ending 
March 3, 1839, so far as they affected the Territory of Wis- 
consin, were not subordinate in interest to those of any pre- 
ceding session. 

The first question which arose, affecting those interests, 
was, which of the two gentlemen claiming the right to rep- 
resent the Territory during that session — George W. Jones 
or James D. Doty — was lawfully entitled to the seat ? 

It was claimed by Mr. Jones that by virtue of his election 
in October, 183G, and in accordance with the provisions of 
an act of Congress passed March 3, 1817, his term did not 
expire until March 3, 1839. 

He took his seat at the opening of the third session, as 
members of the House did, having taken the oath and occu- 
pied the seat at the first (special) and second sessions of that 
Congress. 

Mr. Doty presented the certificate showing that on the 
10th of September, 1838, he had been duly elected, and 
claimed the seat occupied by Mr. Jones, contesting his right 
to hold it. 

The matter was referred to the committee on elections. 

The first section of the act of March 3, 1817, which was 
still in force, prescribed : 

" That in every Territory of the United States, in which a temporary government has 
been, or hereafter shall be, established, and which, by virtue of the ordinance of Congi-ess 
of l-'Jth Julj^, 1787, or of any subsequent act of Congress, passed or to be passed, now 
hath or hereafter shall have the right to send a delegate to Congress ; such delegate shall 
be elected every second year for the same term of two years for which members of the 
House of Representatives of the United States are elected." 

It was claimed by Mr. Jones that under the act of 1817, 
a delegate must be elected only for one Congress, and not 
for parts of two congressional terms; that his term as a del- 
egate from Wisconsin did not commence until the 4th of 
March, 1837, and consequently would not expire until the 
4th of March, 1839. Of course, upon this hypothesis, it was 
claimed that his service as delegate previous to March, 1837, 



276 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

■was as a delegate from Michigan Territory, by virtue of liis 
election as such in 1835. 

It was claimed by Mr. Doty that the act of 1817 was con- 
trolled by the organic act of the Territory of Wisconsin, 
passed April 30, 1836, which gives the power to its citizens 
to elect a delegate to represent them in Congress, without 
fixing any time for the commencement of his services, and 
that the term of service commenced instanter upon the elec- 
tion of the delegate, and that Mr. Jones's duties as a delegate 
from Wisconsin commenced with his election in October, 
1836, and terminated with Mr. Doxy's election in 1838. 

On the 31st of December, 1838, Mr. Buchanan, from the 
committee on elections, submitted a report, in which the 
committee say— 

.. "After all the consideration which the committee have been able to bestow on the sub- 
ject, they have no hesitation in saying that considerable difficulty exists in reconcihng the 
different acts which may be supposed to have a bearing on the matter; yet they feel a 
great degree of confidence in two positions; first, that it was the intention of Congress by 
the act of April, 1836, organizing the Territory, to afford the people of the Territory the priv- 
ilege of an immediate representation in Congress by a delegate to be elected by themselves; 
and second, that the people of the Territory acted with a view to the enjoyment of that 
privilege in electing a delegate in October, 1836, and that Mr. Doty is entitled to a seat 
under his election in 1838." 

The committee reported the following resolution: 

'■'Resolved, That James Duanb Doty is entitled to a seat in this House as a delegate from 
Wisconsin Territory, and that George W. Jones is not so entitled." 

On the 3d of January, 1839, the resolution reported by the 
committee being under consideration, its adoption was ad- 
vocated by Mr. Craig, Mr. Eandolph of New Jersey and 
Mr. Cary of Michigan. Mr. Jones's right to the seat was ad- 
vocated by Mr. Thomas of Maryland and Mr. Cushing of 
Massachusetts, when the previous question having been or- 
dered, the resolution was adopted by a vote of 165 to 35, and 
Mr. Doty was qualified and took his seat. 

On the 5th of January, Mr. Mason, of Ohio, offered a reso- 
lution that Mr. Jones was not entitled to mileage or per 
diem, which after a long debate was defeated by a vote of 
96 to 89. So that he received his mileage and per diem, up 
to the 3d of January. 

The Graves and Cilley duel, to the details of which so 
much space was devoted in the preceding chapter, led to 
the passage of the act of Congress of February 30, 1839, 

"To prohibit the giving or accepting within the District of Columbia of a challenge to 
fight a duel, and for the punishment thereof." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 277 

This act has ever since been in force. 

By its provisions the giving, accepting or the carrying of 
a challenge to fight a duel, or a message intended as such, 
■vvithin the District of Columbia, is made punishable by im- 
prisonment to hard labor in the penitentiary, not exceeding 
ten years if the duel is fought, and either party is slain or 
mortally wounded, and not exceeding five years, whether 
the duel is fought or not. 

The act also prescribes penalties for minor offenses inci- 
dental to a challenge. 

The beneficial results to the Territory of the legislation of 
this session of congress, measured by the appropriations 
made, were meagre, when compared with the demands 
made upon Congress as exhibited by the bills introduced in 
the Senate and House. 

This was attributable in a large degree to the state of the 
finances of the country at that time, and the embarrassed 
condition of the country, which was such that it was so dif- 
ficult to procure funds for the ordinary operations of the 
Government, that the President recommended that no ap- 
propriations be made Vv^hich could properly be avoided. 

To this cause may be added the fact, that the contest for 
the seat of Delegate consumed one month of the short ses- 
sion, and the legislation affecting the Territory was post- 
poned until near the close of the session. 

In addition to the appropriation of $9,100 for compensa- 
tion of Governor, Judges and Secretary, and of $25,000 for 
contingent expenses, pay and mileage of members of Legis- 
lative Assembly, printing, etc., the only appropriations made 
were the following : 

"For the security of the commerce of the United States'" there was appropriated ; "For 
building a pier at the northern extremity of Winnebago Lake," five hundred dollars; 

" For placing buoys at the mouth of Neenah river at the head of Green Bay, to mark 
the channel thereof." five hundred dollars; 

" For the survey and estimate of the cost of improving the navigation of the Neenah 
and Wisconsin Rivei's," two thousand dollars; 

" For the construction of a road from Racine by Jauesville to Sinipee on the JlississippI 
River," ten thousand dollars; 

" For the survey and construction of a road from Sauk harbor on Lake Michigan to 
Dekorree on the Wisconsin River," five thousand dollars. 

"For the construction of a road from Foad du Lac on Lake Winnebago by Fox Lake 
to the Wisconsin River." five thousand dollars; 

That the sum of two thousand dollars, appropriated by 
act of July 7, 1838, for a railroad, shall be applied by the 



278 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Secretary of War to the survey of a railroad from the town 
of Milwaukee to the Mississippi River. 

Being a total of twenty-three thousand dollars for internal 
improvements in the Territory at this session. 

A private act was also passed authorizing John Dough- 
erty, a well-known Indian trader, to enter at the land office 
at Mineral Point, section 13, town 3, range 3 east, at the 
minimum price ($1.25 per acre). 

Besides these acts making appropriations but three others 
affecting Wisconsin were passed at this session. 

One of these modified the absolute veto power of the Gov- 
ernor upon the laws passed by the Legislature, contained in 
the organic act, to a qualified veto, and provided that bills 
might become laws if passed by a majority of two-thirds 
after being returned by the Governor without his signature. 

Another act passed was one which provided for the par- 
tition and division of the township of land owned by the 
Brothertow^n Indians, among the different individuals com- 
posing said tribe and declaring that they should be citizens 
of the United States. 

The other of the three acts alluded to, was to make the 
" middle or center of the main channel " of the Mississippi 
River, the common boundary line between the Territories of 
Wisconsin and Iowa and to give both territories concurrent 
jurisdiction upon the river. 

The several bills wdiich were introduced and which failed 
to pass, contemplated legislation of vastly more importance 
than any or all which did pass. 

Their importance demands a brief reference to them. 

The most important of these, and the most dangerous in 
its possible consequences, was entitled : "A bill to establish 
a system of internal improvements in Wisconsin." It pro- 
vided that the Legislative Assembly of the Territory might 
authorize by law a loan upon the credit of the Territory of 
such unlimited sum as might be required for the improve^ 
ment of the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers ; 
for the improvement of the Rock River and its branches — 
the Pecatonica, River of the Four Lakes, the eastern branch 
of Rock River — to connect with the Milwaukee River, and of 
the latter stream to the lake, and the construction of a canal 
to connect Rock River with Winnebago Lake at Fond du 
Lac, and for the construction of such roads and canals as 
might thereafter be designated. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839 279 

It authorized the Legislative Assembly to pass such laws 
as might be necessary to establish a board of public works; 
to create separate loans for each of said separate objects of 
improvements, and for the sale and negotiation of the stock 
for said loans, and to pledge the faith of the Territory and 
future State for the redemption of the loans at the periods 
stipulated, being not less than thirty years. 

The net proceeds of the tolls to be received from the 
w^orks, and all donations of land which might be made to 
the Territory in aid of said improvements, were to be and re- 
main pledged for the redemption of the loans. 

The board of public works was to consist of three citizens 
of the Territory, to be elected by the Legislative Assembly, 
on joint ballot, under whose direction the several proposed 
routes for improvement were to be surveyed and constructed, 
under the control and direction of the Legislative Assembly. 

A survey of the route of any work, with a general plan 
and estimate of its cost, was to be made under the direction 
of the Chief of the Topographical Engineers and approved 
by him before such work could be commenced. 

The money obtained from loans was to have been in the 
custody of the board of public works, subject to the control 
and management of the Legislative Assembly. No act cre- 
ating a loan was to take effect until approved by Congress. 

There were many other minor provisions. 

A most plausible letter to Hon. J. H. Brunson, chairman 
of the committee on territories, was written by Judge Doty 
February 2d, in support of this bill, which was laid upon the 
table to accompany the bill. 

A kindred measure and an essential part of the "system" 
was "A bill making a grant of land in aid of certain internal 
improvements in Wisconsin," which was reported in the 
Senate on the 11th February by Mr. Lyon, from the com- 
mittee on roads and canals. 

The bill granted to the Territory alternate sections of 
land along and on each side of the Fox and Wisconsin 
rivers, and of the canal to connect them, in aid of the 
improvement of said rivers and of the construction of said 
canal, which were to be disposed of for the redemption of 
such loans as might be made by the Legislative Assembly, 
for the purpose of constructing said improvements. 

It also granted the alternate sections along and on each 
side of Rock River within the limits of Wisconsin, and of 



280 HISTOEY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

its branches — the Peckatonica to Mineral Point, and River 
of the Four Lakes to the Fourth Lake, — and of a canal 
from Rock River to Fond du Lac, to aid in the improvement 
of the navigation of said river and its branches, and of the 
construction of said canal, which lands were in like manner 
to be disposed of for the redemption of loans. 

The act also granted compensatory lands, to be selected in 
lieu of such of the granted lands as had been previously 
disposed of. 

Another bill which was defeated, was one amending the 
organic act, so as to limit the tenure of the offices of Gov- 
ernor, Secretary, Marshal and Attorney to two years; Judges 
to four years, members of the Council to two years, mem- 
bers of the House to one year, and requiring executive offi- 
cers to reside at the seat of government. 

" A bill to approve and confirm an act of the Legislative 
Assembly of Wisconsin " (incorporating banks) passed the 
House but did not pass the Senate. 

The other measures which were pending but failed to 
become laws, were: 

A joint resolution which passed the Senate and was sent 
to the House, appropriating the sum of fifteen thousand 
dollars for a survey and examination of the lake coast for 
the purpose of obtaining the necessary information to make 
accurate charts thereof. 

A bill granting the proceeds of the sale of lots in South- 
port (Kenosha) for the construction of a harbor at South- 
port; and another for a road from Southport to Rock River; 
both failed. 

The bills making Milwaukee and Green Bay ports of 
entry, making an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars 
for a harbor at Milwaukee and an appropriation for a like 
purpose at Racine, all failed to become laws. 



The second Legislative Assembly commenced its second 
session at Madison on the 21st day of January, to which 
time it had adjourned on the 22dof the preceding December. 

There was no change in the membership of either house, 
but James Collins of Iowa county was elected President of 
the Council, in the place of William Bullen, and Lucius 
I. Barber of Milwaukee was elected Speaker of the House, 
in place of John W. Blackstone. The Secretary of the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 281 

Council, Chief Clerk of the House and Sergeant-at-Arms 
of both houses were re-elected. 

The message of the Governor was delivered on the second 
day of the session, in which he said: 

-"I deem it not necessary at this time to call your attention to any other subjects except 
those embraced in my last message, with the exception of our relations with the Winne- 
bago Indians, to which I would respectfully invite the attention of the Legislative 
Assembly." 

After describing the recent depredations and threatening 
demonstrations of the Indians, and his correspondence with 
the war department, and recommending a memorial to the 
Secretary of War for four companies of dragoons for the 
purpose of removing the Indians, the Governor in his 
message said: 

"Unless the Government takes the proper steps to effect their removal early in the 
spring, I will assume the responsibility of raising a mounted volunteer corps of riflemen 
(and head them in person) sufficient to effect their removal from this Territory, with those 
•who are advising and instigating the Winnebago Indians to remain east of the Mississippi, 
from no regard they have for the Indians themselves, but for the punpose of defrauding 
them out of their annuities. 

The resolution adopted at the first session in December 
authorized the fiscal agent to borrow fifteen thousand 
dollars 

"In gold or silver or the notes of the Bank of Illinois, or its branches, or the notes of the 
bank of Missouri for the use of the legislature." 

On the first day of the second session, the fiscal agent re- 
ported to the Legislative Assembly that he had made a loan 
from Collier & Pettis of St. Louis, of fifteen thousand 
dollars, a large part of which was in notes of a bank 
in Cincinnati; whereupon a resolution was immediately 
adopted by both houses, reciting that 

" Wpjereas a large portion of the money received by the said fiscal agent from the said 
Collier & Pettis was of a kind not authorized by the resolution of the Legislative 
Assembly," 

Resolved, " That the Legislative Assembly approves of said loan and hereby ratifies and 
agrees to the contract made on the 26th day of December, 1838, by Moses M. Strong, 
fiscal agent of the Legislative Assembly, with Messrs. Collier & Pettis. 

On the third day of the session, the speaker laid before 
the House a report of the United States Attorney, in pur- 
suance of a resolution adopted at the preceding session 
requesting him 

" To examine and report to the Legislative Assembly as soon as practicable, whetherthe 
Territory has a title to the ground on which the capitol stands; and if not, in whom the 



282 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

title thereof is, together with such other facts in relation thereto, as to him may seem 
expedient." 

The report states that the land was entered in the joint 
names of James Duane Doty and Stevens T. Mason, and 
that Doty conveyed all his right, title and interest to 
Mason, and after setting forth all the conveyances with 
particularity, and stating the reason, for the conclusion, 
states 

" That the result of the whole enquiry seems to be, that Blr. Mason acquired the title to 
half these lands by the original entry; that he acquired the title to the other half by virtue 
of the deed from Mr. Doty; thus vesting in him the whole title. That he has never so far 
as we have examined, parted with that title; the only deed which purports to convey any 
part of it (the deed from Tillou and Mason to Doty) being void for the reasons already 
stated; and therefore that neither of the acknowledgments of either of the town plats by 
by Mr. Doty vests any title to the public square in the Territory." 

Mr. Mason afterward conveyed half of his interest to 

KiNTZING PrITCHETTE. 

The United States attorney, in concluding his report, says: 

" Considering that the interests of the Territory imperatively required that the title to 
the ground on which the Capitol stands, together with such groimd adjacent thereto as 
might be convenient, sliould be speedily secured to them, or that it should be known with 
certainty at an early day that it would not be; I lost no time in writing to Messrs. Mason 
and Pritchette, and on the 7th of January, instant, I received from them a power of attor- 
ney authorizing me to convey the title to the Territory, accompanied by a request that I 
would execute a conveyance agreeably to the authority given in the letter of attorney. 
Accordingly, on the 16th of January, inst., I executed to the Territory of Wisconsin a 
deed of the tract known and described upon the plat acknowledged by Mr. Doty as the 
public square, to be held by the Territory until the organization of a State government, 
with a reversion to the State when organized, which secures to the Territoiy 'a title to the 
ground on which the Capitol now stands.' " 

A joint resolution was adopted February 8, 1839, in pursu- 
ance of which a committee of three members from each 
House was appointed to investigate the affairs of the com- 
missioners for the building of the Capitol, with power to 
send for persons and papers, and administer oaths, and re- 
port to the Legislative Assembly the manner in which the 
public building had been conducted and in which the money 
appropriated by Congress had been paid out. 

The committee, after an investigation and an examina- 
tion of witnesses, submitted a report, accompanied by the 
evidence before it, written and oral, from which it appears 
that the commissioners elected on the 7th of December, 1836, 
held no meeting until the 4th of the following May, when 
only Messrs. Doty and O'ISTeill were present. Mr. Bird 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 283 

was appointed acting commissioner, with authority to pur- 
chase materials, employ mechanics and laborers, and to do 
whatever else was requisite to construct the buildings. 

The act to locate the seat of government, by which the 
commissioners were appointed, provided that they should — 

"Agree upon a plan, issue proposals, giving clue notice thereof, and. contract for the 
erection of said buildings without delay." 

The report of the committee states — 

" That the commissioners, instead of entering upon the discharge of their duties agree- 
ably to the requirements of the law under which the board were created, and in which 
their duties were plainly marked out, boldly assumed the power of purchasing materials, 
employing mechanics and laborers, and proceeding in the construction of the buildings on 
their own account. The acting commissioner in the month of May, 1837, commenced 
operations at Madison, having previously engaged a number of mechanics, purchased pro- 
visions, etc. The construction of the work was continued by him until the mouth of Sep- 
tember following, when a notice for proposals was issued for the first time. Three bids 
were received, but none were accepted by the commissioners, and the work was continued 
by them until April ^'5, 183.S." 

A contract was let to James Morrison April 17, 1838, to 
complete the buildings for the sum of $36,300. 
The committee submitted the evidence — 

"Without expressing an opinion in relation to the proper measures to be adopted by the 
Legislature." 

The report was submitted in the House on 4th March by 
Mr. Blackstone, one of the members of the joint com- 
mittee. It was read and referred back to the committee 
appointed on the part of the House, with instructions to 
report by bill or otherwise. 

Mr. Blackstone in behalf of the committee, on the same 
day reported — 

''That the commissioners have acted from the commencement of their duties in direct 
violation of the laws under which they were appointed. Under a conviction of this fact 
your committee would respectfully report the following bill — " 

The bill without material amendment became a law on 
the Stli of March. It repealed the 3d section of the act of 
December 3, 1830, which provided for the election of com- 
missioners, to cause the necessary buildings to be erected. 

It further provided that three commissioners should be 
elected by joint ballot, who should be styled Commissioners 
of Public Buildings, and that an annual election should bo 
held, the commissioners to hold their offices until the termi- 
nation of the next regular session of the Legislative Assem- 
bly after their election. 

The act prescribed that the old commissioners should im- 



28i HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

mediately settle their accounts with the new commissioners 
and pay over to them all money or evidences of debt in 
their hands, and books, papers, etc., and if they should neg- 
lect or refuse it was made the duty of the new commis- 
sioners to cause suit to be instituted against them in the 
name of the Territory. 

It was made the duty of the new commissioners under 
this act, to cause the public buildings which had been com- 
menced to be completed and finished according to the con- 
tract with Morrison. 

James L. Thayer, ISTathaniel C. Prentice and Lester 
H. Cotton were elected commissioners. 

The efforts of the new commissioners to effect a settle- 
ment with the old ones or to obtain from them any money, 
evidences of debt, books or papers, having proved unavail- 
ing, they instituted a suit in the naixie of the Territory 
against the former commissioners for the recovery of the 
money in their hands. 

The contract of Morrison for completing the Capitol ex- 
pired on the 20th of September, at which time it was entirely 
unfinished, almost no work having been done since the 
adjournment of the Legislative Assembly, although the con- 
tractor had been overpaid by the old commissioners $7,400.70, 
according to the estimate of the new commissioners. 

Suit was commenced against him and his sureties for a 
breach of the contract and for the recovery of the public 
money in his hands. 

The new commissioners having no public funds, advanced 
of their own over $330, with which they did such work on 
the Capitol, as enabled the Legislative Assembly to occupy 
it, at the next session. 

The reason assigned by Judge Doty in several communi- 
cations in the newspapers, for refusing to account with and 
pay over to the new commissioners the funds in his hands 
was that Congress, by the act of June 18, 1838, mak- 
ing a second appropriation of $20,000 for completing the 
public buildings, had enacted that the money should 

" Be expended according to the act of the Legislative Assembly, entitled 'An Act to 
establish the seat of Government of the Territory of Wisconsin and to provide for the erec. 
tion of public buildings,' approved December 3, 1836;" 

and that the Legislature had not the 

" Power to cause the sum appropriated by Congress to be expended by any other per- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 285 

sons than the commissioners elected in pursuance of the third section of the act of 
December 3, 1830." 

The financial condition of the whole country during the 
winter of 18.'38-9, resulting from the crash of 1837, and the 
general suspension of specie payments, affected the infant 
Territory of Wisconsin no less disastrously than the longer 
settled portions of tlie country. 

Two banks — one at Green Bay and one at Mineral Point, — 
were in active operation at this time, and the charter of 
another was in existence — the Bank of Milwaukee — the 
franchises of which were claimed by two different boards of 
directors, but were not practically exercised by either. 

At the December session separate joint committees had 
been appointed to investigate the affairs of the Bank of 
Wisconsin at Green Bay, and the Bank of Mineral Point. 

The first named committee went to Green Bay and com- 
menced their duties on the 1st of January. The only officers 
of the Bank were H. Stringham, Cashier, and H. W. Wells, 
Clerk. They each presented sworn statements of the affairs 
of the Bank, but refused to be examined or to answer any 
questions under oath, and would not exhibit to the commit- 
tee the books of the bank for their inspection. The commit- 
tee reported such statements as the officers had volunteered 
to give, and expressing their regret that circumstances 
beyond their control had prevented them from fully and 
satisfactorily making such an investigation and report as 
the resolution under which they acted contemplated; they 
reported that the refusal of the officers of the bank to allow 
the committee to examine into the doings of the corpora- 
tion is, in the opinion of the committee, a direct abuse and 
violation of the provisions of its charter. 

Thereupon the Legislative Assembly passed an act that 
the Attorney General of the Territory commence and pros- 
ecute a suit by injunction to close up all proceedings of said 
Bank and annul its charter, and authorizing the court to 
appoint a receiver to take charge of its property, collect its 
debts and pay its creditors the proportions due to them. 

Upon the passage of this act Henry S. Baird, the Attor- 
ney General, resigned his office, and on the 30th March the 
Governor appointed Horatio IST. Wells his successor, who 
commenced and prosecuted the suit against the bank and 
obtained the appointment of a receiver, under whose charge 
Uie affairs of the bank were wound up. 



286 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The committee appointed to investigate the affairs of the 
Bank of Mineral Point met there on the 4th and 5th of Jan- 
uary. Every facility for making the examination was fur- 
nished by the cashier, who presented a statement of the 
affairs of the bank, prepared and sworn to by him, which 
the committee compared with the funds in the bank and 
with the books, and which they reported to be a fair and 
correct statement of the affairs of the institution. 

The report concludes: 

"From a full and particular investigation of its books and funds, and from the statement 
of its cashier under oatli, as well as from the general confidence of the community in 
which it is placed, your committee unhesitatingly express their belief that the Bank of 
Mineral Point is in a safe and solvent condition," 

when the experience of a short time demonstrated its utter 
insolvency. 

The Legislative Assembly made short work of disposing 
of the Bank of Milwaukee, by the unconditional repeal of 
the act of November 30, 1S3G, incorporating it, and declaring 
that the charter granted by said act be annulled, vacated 
and made void. 

It would seem that the action of the Legislative Assembly 
was not prompted by any spirit of hostility to banks as 
such, as at the same session an act was passed to incorporate 
the State Bank of Wisconsin, with a capital of one mill- 
ion dollars, which was to be procured in this wise: 

The stockholders were to make subscriptions for stock, 
which were to be guaranteed and secured by mortgages on 
real estate, and the directors were to obtain the capital by 
the issue of the bonds of the bank, payable at the expiration 
of its charter, for the payment of which the mortgages 
given by the stockholders were to remain a perpetual 
pledge to the holder of the bonds of the bank. 

The Governor was authorized to subscribe for over half 
of the capital, and pay for it in bonds of the Territory bear- 
ing 7 per cent, interest payable in 18G3. 

There was to be a mother bank and branches, not exceed- 
ing five, located where the directors might determine. 

This act could not go into effect until approved by Con- 
gress, which approval was never given, and the "State Bank 
of Wisconsin" died still-born. 

Another abortive act of this session, under which it was 
contemplated that a banking business would be done at 
Sinipee in Grant county, was "An act to incorporate the Mis- 
sissippi Marine and Fire Insurance Company." But Sinipee 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. ^87 

failed to justify the sang-uine hopes of its progenitors, who 
were alike unsuccessful in giving vitality to the "Insurance 
Company" charter. 

But far different was the fate of "An act to incorporate 
the Wisconsin Fire and Marine Insurance Company," passed 
at this session. Its authorized capital was five hundred 
thousand dollars, and was controlled by some wealthy 
Scotch gentlemen, who organized it, and who, under the 
power contained in the charter, to " receive money on de- 
posit, and loan the same," filled all the channels for money 
circulation in the valley of the Mississippi for years, with 
its certificates of deposit, in the similitude of, and which 
supplied the place of, bank notes, although the charter ex- 
pressly provided that nothing therein contained should give 
the company banking privileges. This is a striking illus- 
tration of the futility of legislative restrictions upon the ex- 
ercise of corporate powers, especially when sustained, as 
that company undoubtedly was, by popular sentiment. 

Three acts incorporating mining companies, and two in- 
corporating manufacturing companies, were passed at this 
session. 

The " Pekatonica and Mississippi Railroad Company," to 
construct a railroad from Mineral Point to the Mississippi 
River, and the " Pekatonica Navigation Company," to con- 
struct a canal or slack-water navigation along the valley of 
the Pekatonica River, from the Illinois state line to Mineral 
Point, were the only internal improvement corporations of 
the session. 

Acts were passed appointing connnissioners to lay out 
territorial roads from Rochester to Madison, from the Illi- 
nois line near Fox River to Prairie Village, from Geneva to 
Milwaukee, from Geneva to Fond du Lac, from Mineral 
Point to English Prairie, from Janesville to White Oak 
Springs, from Mineral Point to Sinipee, from Southport to 
Madison, from Manitowoc to Green Bay, from Southport to 
Beloit, from Manitowoc Rapids to Sheboygan Falls, from 
Mineral Point to Brewster's Ferry, from Plum Creek to Man- 
itowoc Rapids, from Prairie du Chien to Fort Winnebago, 
from Sac Creek to Fort Winnebago, from Milwaukee to 
Watertown, and from Sheboygan to Madison. 

These matters at that early day were regarded as of great 
local importance. 



288 HISTORY OF THE TERRITOEY OF WISCONSIN. 

Two acts were passed authorizing private parties to erect 
dams across Rock River. One "at a place known as John- 
son's Rapids, on section 4, town 8, range 15;" so little was 
the present city of Watertown then known. The other was 
in section 6 or 7, in town 11, range 16, where Horiconnow is. 

Several acts organizing municipal corporations passed. 

One of these incorporated "The President and Trustees of 
the town of Green Bay/' consisting of the north ward and 
the south ward. 

Another incorporated "The President and Trustees of the 
town of Milwaukee," consisting of the east ward and the 
west ward. 

The only other act of importance in relation to munic- 
ipal corporations, was an act to establish certain towns in 
Milwaukee, Brown, Racine and Walworth counties. 

The towns established by this act were Lake, Kinnike- 
nick, Milwaukee, Vernon, Prairie Village, Muskego, Lisbon, 
Mequanego, Brookfield, Gennessee, Summit, Washington, 
Dodge, Bark River, Finch, Jefferson, Watertown, Racine, 
Mount Pleasant, Rochester, Salem, Burlington, Troy, Spring 
Prairie, Elk Horn, Delavan, Geneva, Southport, Pleasant 
Prairie, Rock, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Oconto, Pasaukie, 
Howard, Kakalin, Winnebago, Butte des Morts, Calumet, 
Fond du Lac, Depere, Green Bay, Bay Settlement, Portage 
and Kewaunee. 

The organization of the counties of Rock, Dane, Jeffer- 
son and Fond du Lac was authorized by laws passed at this 
session. 

Commissioners having been appointed at the December 
session to locate the seat of justice of Green county, they 
performed that duty and in pursuance of the act by which 
they were appointed, the Governor on the 20th of February 
issued his proclamation announcing the result. 

This action was unsatisfactory to a large number of the 
citizens of the county, who expressed their dissatisfaction at 
a public meeting held on the 23rd of February, and as a 
result another act was passed March 9th, providing for an 
election by the male residents of the county on the first 
Monday of May. This election resulted in a tie vote. 
There were 130 votes polled, which were equally divided be- 
tween " New Mexico " and the other location. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 289 

An act of considerable importance to the citizens of Ra- 
cine and relating to the origin of the titles of many lots in 
that city was passed at this session. 

On the 2nd of January, 1838, an act had been passed 
which appeared to contemplate that Gilbert Knapp should 
loan to the board of supervisors of Racine county, a suffi- 
cient sum to enable them to enter the east fractional half of 
section 9, town 3, range 23, as the county seat of Racine 
county, in pursuance of the act of Congress of 1824, au- 
thorizing them to do so, and that the supervisors should 
re-sell the lands so entered, to Mr. Knapp at ten dollars per 
acre. 

By an act passed February 2, 1830, the foregoing act was 
repealed, and the Board of County Commissioners were 
authorized to convey said lands for a gross sum of $8,000, or 
a part thereof — if they only obtained title to part — for a 
proportionate part of that sum. 

By a resolution adopted at this session, John V. Suydam, 
Francis C. Kirkpatrick and Jeremiah B. Zander were ap- 
pointed commissioners to locate a portion — not exceeding 
two thirds — of the lands donated by Congress for the use 
and support of a university. No selections were made 
under tliis appointment and the act became obsolete. 

Acts were passed to incorporate the "Southport Academy" 
and the " Platteville Academy," the objects of w^hich were 
entirely educational. 

The " Jefferson Institute," to be located at or near Azta- 
lan, was also incorporated, the object of which was : 

'' The instruction of young men in practical and scientific agriculture, and the promo- 
tion of the general interest cf education." 

And another act was passed to incorporate " The Milwau- 
kee Lyceum," the objects of which were : 

"The advancement and general diffusion of useful knowledge, by discotu-ses or lectures, 
by the formatitn of a l.brary, and also the collection and preservation of such facts and 
specimens as will tend to illustrate the antiquities, the civil and natural history of Wis- 
consin/' 

An act was passed relating to judicial districts by which 
the counties of Crawford, Grant and Iowa were made to 
constitute the first disti'ict ; Walworth. Rock, Green and 
Dane the second, and Brown, Milwaukee and Racine the 
third. It provided that Charles Dunn should be judge of 
19 



290 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the first district, David Irvin of the second, and Andrew G. 
Miller of the third, and fixed the times for holding courts 
in the several counties. 

It was provided by law that the regular sessions of the 
Legislative Assembly should commence on the first Mon- 
day of December, annually. 

The appropriations made by the Legislative Assembly, 
for the pay of members, printing, and all incidental ex- 
penses of this session amounted to $25,614.80, and those of 
the December session amounted to $6,450.14, making a total 
of $32,064.94, being an excess of 67,064.94 over the appropria- 
tion made by Congress. 

The most important work of this session was the revision 
of the laws, which was perfected during the recess, and 
submitted to the two Houses at their second meeting. 

The committee for this purpose consisted of Messrs. Mar- 
tin, Marshall M. Strong, and Collins, of the Council, and 
Messrs. Whiton, Story, and Shackelford, of the House of 
Representatives. They were required by the resolution to 
make a division of the labor of revision, and the portion 
allotted to each branch of the committee was to be reported 
to the House of which they were members. The commit- 
tee, during the recess of the Legislative Assembly, prepared, 
and at the succeeding session reported, numerous bills, 
which were passed by that body, and compose the principal 
part of the laws contained in the volume of the Revised 
Statutes published in 1839, and which took effect the 4th of 
July of that year. 

Hon. Edward V. Whiton, the late able and upright Chief 
Justice of the State, was entrusted by the Legislative As- 
sembly with the care of the printing and publication of this 
volume, and the preparation of marginal notes and index. 
The manner in which he discharged these duties was such 
as might have been expected, and did great credit to his 
comprehension of the subject, and to his carefulness and 
industry. The volume itself was a most valuable one to all 
classes, but especially to the courts and lawyers, during the 
ten years of Territorial life in which it was the vade mecuni 
of statutory law. 

Other questions, of more or less temporary interest, occu- 
pied the attention of the Legislative Assembly during its 
long and laborious session, which cannot be referred to in 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 291 

detail; and it may with truth be said that, as a whole, no 
session during the existence of the Territorial government 
ever performed more labor, or in a more satisfactory manner. 

To avoid a recurrence of the question as to the beginning 
and end of the term of service of the delegate in Congress 
from Wisconsin, which was the cause of the contest between 
Messrs. Jones and Doty, it was provided in an act "to pro- 
vide for and regulate general elections," embodied in the 
new Revised Statutes, that "an election for a delegate to 
serve in the Twenty-sixth Congress (or so much thereof as 
may remain after the term of the present delegate shall 
have expired) shall take place on th6 first Monday in August, 
1839, and on the same day in every second year thereafter." 

Although this act did not take effect until the 4th of July, 
it was approved March 7th, and it was well known that an 
election for delegate to Congress would be held on the first 
Monday of August, and public sentiment commenced at 
once to take shape with reference to that event. 

Hitherto national politics had not been an important 
factor in Territorial elections, but now a large num- 
ber thought it wise that party lines should be drawn. 

The first demonstration in this direction was a public 
meeting at Mineral Point on the 13th of April, which, after 
setting forth several reasons why the democrats of Wis- 
consin ought to unite for the purpose of effecting a perma- 
nent organization, adopted resolutions recommending to 
their democratic fellow citizens in the several counties, to 
appoint delegates for the purpose of meeting in general 
convention at Madison on the first Monday of June, "for the 
purpose of deliberating on measures for the general good," 
and calling upon all democrats in the several counties to 
organize, to appoint all necessary committees for that pur- 
pose, and to correspond frequently with each other to pro- 
mote general harmony and concert. 

A few days later a call for a "Territorial Convention" was 
issued signed by 3G voters of Brown county and 30 of Dane 
county, who 

"Believing that in the selection and election of a candidate (for delegate in Congress) 
there should be a general understanding and unity of action on the subject, recommended 
that meetings be held throughout the scTeral counties for the purpose of appointing dele- 
gates to attend a ^Territorial Convention'' to nominate a proper person to represent the 
people in Congress." 



292 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The call recommended the 18th day of June, at Madison, 
as the proper time and place for holding the "Territorial 
Convention." 

On the 3d of June, agreeably to the request of the meeting 
held at Mineral Point on the 13th of April, delegates met at 
Madison, from Dane, Iowa, Rock and Green counties and 
organized a democratic convention. 

A committee on credentials was appointed and reported 
a list of delegates elect, and a committee on resolutions hav- 
ing been appointed made a report recommending that the 
convention adjourn until the 19th of June, which was 
adopted. 

On the 1st day of June a meeting was held at Green Bay, 
at which six delegates were appointed to attend the "Terri- 
torial Convention," at Madison on the ISth of June, and in- 
structed the delegates to use every fair and honorable 
means to secure the nomination of James Duane Doty. 

One of these delegates was Hon. Mokgan L. Martin who 
published a card on the 4th of June, announcing his deter- 
mination not to act in that capacity, in which he says: 

"That the proceedings of tliat meeting do not accord with the sentiments of a large, and 
perhaps the larger portion of this community, and that its design was to secure a packed 
convention for particular purposes. It should, I think, be condemned by every one who has 
the interest of our country at heart." 

The " Territorial Convention " met at Madison on the 18th 
of June. Twenty-six delegates were in attendance of 
whom six were from Brown county, five from Racine, seven 
from Milwaukee, five from Dane, one from Walworth, one 
from Rock and one from Dodge. Gjlbekt Knapp was 
elected President and Sat. Clark and A. A. Bird, secre- 
taries. 

A committee appointed for that purpose reported the fol- 
lowing resolutions which were unanimously adopted: 

" Resolved, That this conventicn do nominate James Duane Doty of Brown county as a 
candidate for election to the office of delegate in Congress in August next. 

Eesohed, That we deprecate the bitter course of his enemies in endeavoring unjustly 
to deprive him of his seat in Congress in violation of the express wishes of a large por- 
tion of the electors, thus delaying the business of the Territory and crippling his efforts 
to procure appropriations. 

Resolved, That we believe that those who are hostile to him, are moved by feelings of 
prejudice and a greedy desire to obtain thecrumbs of office. 

Resolved, That ve call on his friends in the east and west, north and south, to rally at 
the polls in August next, in such numbers as to silence forever the clamor and abuse of his 
enemies. 

Resolved, That the ridiculous assemblage of Whigs and Administration men under 1 c 



TEEEITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 293 

banner of Democracy which convenes at Madison on the 19th for the purpose of nomina- 
ting an available candidate, is calculated to excite the disgust and contempt of every 
true party man. 

Resolved, That we will use all fair and honorable means to secure the election of James 
DuANE Doty as delegate to Congress — that we will not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber 
to our eyelids till we can say that we have met the enemy and they are ours." 

The convention also resolved : 

" That H. N. Wells of Milwaukee, Thomas P. Burnett of Grant county, and John 
Lawe of Green Bay, be appointed a committee for the jjurpose of calling future conven- 
tions." 

And further : " That any attempt to effect a party organization in the election of Dele- 
gate for this Territory at this time, will be calculated to injure the true interests of the 
Territory and greatly lessen the influence of such Delegate in the councils of the nation." 

The Democratic Territorial convention which had met at 
Madison, on the 3d of June, aiid adjourned to the 19th, re- 
assembled at that time. 

William B. Sheldon was President; Wm. H. Banks 
and Wm, N. Seymour, Secretaries. 

There were thirty-five delegates in attendance, of whom 
10 were from Iowa county, 7 from Dane, 7 from Brown, 7 
from Milwaukee, 1 from Rock, 2 from Portage and 1 from 
Dodge. 

An informal ballot was had for a candidate for the dele- 
gacy, the result of which was as follows : 

Byron Kilbourn 18 votes. 

Morgan L. Martin 7 votes. 

John P. Sheldon 8 votes. 

George W. Jones 2 votes. 

Some of the persons who were acting as delegates were of 
Whig antecedents, and as a consequence, a discussion en- 
sued, as to the political character of the convention, which 
resulted in the adoption of the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That this be considered a Democi atic convention, and that we are in favor 
of drawing the party lines." 

Thereupon a formal ballot was taken, as follows : 

Byron Kilbourn 24 votes. 

Morgan L. Martin 10 votes. 

George W. Jones 1 vote. 

And Mr. Kilbouen was decided duly nominated. 

The convention adopted this preamble and resolution — 

"Whereas, the intentions and feelings of the members of this convention in relation to the 
objects of their meeting on this day, have been assailed with a wantonness and illiberality 
as unexampled as it was unexpected, and inasmuch as certain citizens assembled osten- 
sibly in convention at this place yesterday, have by their proceedings endeavored to give 
countenance to those assaults, and to njisrepresentatious of a malignant character; 
therefore — 



294 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Resolved, That we feel it to be a duty due to our fellow citizens gjenerally and to our 
own characters, to deny, as false and groundless, the assertion and intimation that we are 
here to carry into effect any sectional project, or to give our aid to promote the aspira- 
tions or interests of any particular individual." 

Other resolutions were adopted discountenancing and re- 
buking attempts to create or foster sectional jealousies, and 
calling upon the citizens of the Territory to aid in the 
organization of the parties to which they have honestly 
attached themselves, be they democratic, whig or conserva- 
tive. 

The "citizen" and his consort with '-'bank speculators," 
alluded to in the following resolutions, was so well under- 
stood to be Judge Doty, that a more pointed reference to 
him was not thought necessary. These were the resolu- 
tions: 

Resolved, That whenever a citizen by his own exertions, or through the labors of those 
who have placed themselves under his dictation, attempts to aggrandize himself by pro- 
moting sectional jealousies and prejudices, or by injuring by misrepresentations the rep- 
utation and public character of those who will not administer to his ambitious cravings, 
that individual should be divested of the public confidence and receive the open condenma- 
tion of his fellow citizens. 

Resolved, That we will unite our individual exertions, and urge our fellow-citizens 
throughout the Territory, to unite in opposing all candidates for the suffrages of the people 
of Wisconsin who may have willfully, at any time, consorted with reckless bank specula- 
tors for the purpose of defrauding the public by means of fraudulent and insolvent 
banks." 

The Democratic candidate was spoken of in resolu- 
tions as — 

"In every respect well qualified to discharge the various and arduous duties devolving 
upon a Representative in Congress." It was said "That his general information in re- 
gard to the wants of the Territory, will enable him, if elected, to secure to each portion its 
proper share of the benefits of appropriations which mdy reasonably be expected from 
Congress." 

A committee of five was appointed to prepare an address 
to the people; and a " central corresponding committee" was 
appointed in each county. 

Immediately after his nomination Judge Doty addressed 
" To the Public" a communication containing an explana- 
tion and defense of his transactions in relation to the title 
' to lots in Madison, which was first published in the Wiscon- 
sin Enquirer, and copied into other papers. 

In reply to this communication Gov. Mason of Detroit 
had published a communication in the Enquirer of July 
29th, in which he says 

" That the publication of Doty is a tissue of fabrications from beginning to end, as false 
as the man is base." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 295 

On the 19th of July, Judge Doty pubhshed another com- 
munication " To the Pubhc " in the Enquirer in defense of 
his neglect to meet the new board of commissioners of 
public buildings and settle with them his accounts as treas- 
urer of the old board. The essence of this defense is in the 
following extract: 

" The appointment of the fli'st board of commissioners having been sanctioned by Con- 
gress, it is not very probable they (the commissioners) will, without due authority, surren- 
der the intei'ests of the seat of government to its political enemies. When Congress 
approves of the law superseding the first board, I shall willingly surrender my place." 

Judge Doty made as thorough a personal canvass of the 
Territory as the limit of time before election would admit, 
and his easy, familiar intercourse with the people, prepos- 
sessing personal presence and wonderful suavity of manner, 
were very effective in removing prejudices which existed 
against him and in making and attaching to him new sup- 
porters . 

As no accusations which demanded defense or explana- 
tion had been made against Mr. Kilboukn, he was not re- 
quired to offer any. 

Instead of this he presented to the people a very able and 
somewhat elaborate address of considerable length, contain- 
ing a statement of his views in relation to the course which 
ought to be pursued by the Delegate, and which he should 
consider it his duty to pursue, if elected. 

After adverting to the natural features of the country, and 
the natural means and capabilities for its improvement, em- 
bracing the Mississippi on the west, the chain of inland seas 
on the north and east, and Rock River in the interior, with 
its tributaries — the River of the Four Lakes and the Peck- 
atonica — and also the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers; the 
statement continues that Congress has placed in the hands 
of the Territory a grant of lands, which will secure, beyond 
a doubt, the successful completion of the Milwaukee and 
Rock River canal. 

The address states that public interest demands that gov- 
ernment aid should be secured for completing the connec- 
tion between the Fox and "Wisconsin Rivers, and for the 
improvement of those streams from Green Bay to the Mis- 
sissippi, and continues : — 

" Suitable aid for this and the Peckatonica improvement, either in land or money, ought 
to be sedulously sought for by our Representative ; and I would not seek the support nor 
ask the confidence of my fellow-citizens, if I could not freely and frankly pledge myself 
to the active support of these essential measures." 



296 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The address advocates the improvement of the rapids of 
the Mississippi River, and devotes much space to the sub- 
ject of harbor improvements on the v^estern coast of Lake 
Michigan. 

The danger of asking for too much at once is suggested, 
and the pohcy advised of — 

"Asking at the next session of Congress appropriations for two or perhaps three harbors 
(not to exceed the latter number). Those harbors would thenceforth come up in connec- 
tion with the 'old harbor bill,' and would in no wise interfere with the introduction of a 
new bill at the next succeeding session for two or three new harbor appropriations, and in 
this manner we should probably secure to the country the object so long sought for in 
vain." 

The three points for which the address suggests that 
appropriations should be first asked, are Milwaukee; South- 
port (or Pike River) and Sheboygan, and in that order. The 
next in importance are stated to be Racine and Manitowoc 
(or Twin Rivers). The other points along the lake being 
(in the present state of the country) of minor importance, 
will not immediately claim the attention of the govern- 
ment. 

The address further says — 

"In order to render these (harbors) of the greatest possible value to the country, simulta- 
neous appropriations ought to be secured for the construction of roads leading from these 
several points (Milwaukee, Southport and Sheboygan) to the interior." 

"It can be urg(;d " (says the address) " with great force and propriety upon Congress 
that the government have already drawn from this Territory near $3,000,000 in the shape 
of land revenues, and more than a quarter of a million from the mineral region by a 
direct tax on their labor and industry " (rent lead) — 

" We ought in justice to receive an appropriation not less than $100,000 per annum to be 
expended in works of primary importance in the mineral district, and a like amount to be 
expended along the lake border, in the interior for the next five years, and this sura would 
but little, if any, exceed the amount of direct taxation drawn from the mineral country 
and five per cent, on the land revenues drawn from the Territory up to the close of that 
period." 

In relation to political questions the address says: 

'■ All who know me are aware that I have been a steadfast friend and supporter of the 
present administration and of the Democratic party. 

I am, nevertheless, free to state, that so far as regards parties within the Territory, my 
opinion is decidedly that the interests of this country would not be promoted by fixing 
now the rule of party lines as a test for support or opposition to our candidates for offices 
and public trusts." 

" While, therefore, I assert my full adhesion to Democratic principles and republican 
government, I must be permitted to state distinctly that if the people shall select me as 
their delegate in Congress, it must be with the full understanding that I cannot consent to 
occupy that station as a partisan politician. Bly politics will be to secure ' the greatest 
good to the greatest number 'of the people of our Territory." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1839. 



297 



Mr. KiLBOURN also visited different parts of the Territory, 
but his canvass was by no means so thorough as that of his 
principal competitor. 

The aspect of the contest for the election of delegate to 
Congress was materially affected, and involved in increased 
uncertainty, by the self-assumed candidacy of Thomas P. 
Burnett, which was announced on the 29th of June, in the 
following card: 

To THE People of Wisconsin : 

Fellow-Citizens — At the request of numerous friends, I have concluded again to become 
a candidate to represent you as delegate in Congress. In presenting myself a second time 
before you to solicit your suffrages, I do so without reference to any party, either local 
or national, and independently of caucus nominations. If elected I shall devote my labors 
with zeal and fidelity to promote the best interests of the whole Territory, without regard 
to parties or sectionalinterests. The period of time which will elapse between this and 
the day of the election is too short to allow me to visit the different parts of the Terri- 
tory for the purpose of making myself more generally known, and I hope this will be con- 
sidered as sufficient apology for this short address. 

Respectfully, your fellow citizen, 

Thomas P. Burnett. 
Grant County, June 29, 1839. 

Mr. Burnett, however, found time to visit the people of 
Milwaukee and Racine counties, and made as thorough a 
canvass as was practicable under the circumstances. 

The following is the official result : 



Counties. 



Brown 

Milwaukee.. 

Racine 

Jefferson — 

Dane 

Walworth . . . 

Iowa 

Rock 

Manitowoc. 
Sheboygan . 

Grant 

Crawford . . . 

Green 

Fond du Lac 
Totals. 



Doty. 



274 
379 
384 

83 
40 

\:)0 

145 

126 

29 

14 

206 

148 

67 

21 



2,125 



KiLLBOURN. 



27 

3G2 

83 

13 

27 

42 

295 

81 

1 

1 

101 

2 

63 
00 



1,158 



Burnett. 



22 

51 

13 

30 

6 

9 

221 

12 

9 

4 

425 

30 

29 

00 

861 



298 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Under the organic law the term of office of the Governor 
was three years. Governor Dodge was appointed in April, 
183C, and his term of service commenced on the 4th of July. 
Shortly before the expiration of his term he was re-appointed 
for another term of three years. 

The public sales of the Government land in the Milwaukee 
land district first proclaimed to take place at Milwaukee on 
the 19th of November, and 3d day of December, 1838, were 
in accordance with the general wish of the settlers, as ex-- 
pressed in their petitions, postponed by the proclamation of 
the President of the United States, until the 18th of Febru- 
ary, and the 4th of March, 1839. 

The sales took place at the times to which they were post- 
poned, and during the first week averaged $25,000 per day. 
There was no competition at the sales, nor any attempt by 
" greedy speculators " to interfere with the claims of the 
settlers, who adjusted all conflicting disputes by arbitra- 
tion, and the capitalists found it more for their interest to 
loan money to the settlers on the security of the land pur- 
chased by them, than to invest it in the lands themselves. 

Thus all apprehensions on the part of the settlers in 
obtaining title to their claims, proved to be groundless, not- 
withstanding they had not been in possession of them on 
the 22d of June, 1838, as required by the pre-emption act 
passed on that day. 

Very few lands were bought on speculation, and conse- 
quently a great portion of the best lands in the district were 
subject to entry at $1.25 per acre by the throng of emigrants 
that soon after occupied the entire country. 

Complaints were forwarded to Washington of the man- 
ner in which Messrs. Cameron and Murray had executed 
their duties as commissioners, for distributing the funds pro- 
vided by the treaty with the Winnebago Indians of 
November 1, 1837, for the payment of their debts and for dis- 
tribution among their relatives of mixed blood, of the large 
sum set apart by the treaty for their benefit. It was repre- 
sented that of $52,300 awarded to sixteen half-breeds, 
$31,700 was retained by Brodhead as their attorney, and 
only $20,600 paid over to the half-breeds. 

A full report of the proceedings of the board of commis- 
sioners was sent to the Secretary of War (Hon. Joel R. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 290 

Poinsett), and he annulled all that was done by the former 
board of commissioners, and appointed Judge Fleming, of 
the State of New York, to make the necessary awards and 
distribution of the money set apart under the treaty. 

The new commissioner met the persons having claims 
upon the Winnebagoes and those of mixed blood claiming a 
distributive share of the fund provided for their benefit, at 
Prairie du Chien in the month of September, 1839, and dis- 
charged his duties in a satisfactory manner. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 

Unlike the preceding session, the interests of Wisconsin 
in the action of the first session of the twenty-sixth Con- 
gress were not affected by any contest in relation to the seat 
of its delegate. 

But if the bills and resolutions which were introduced by 
the delegate, and at his instance, are contrasted with the re- 
sults, it will be seen that it was barren of affirmative action. 

These measures were : 

First. "A bill concerning the judiciary of Wisconsin." 
It provided that the tenure of office of the Chief Justice and 
assistant judges should be limited to four years, and that it 
should be lawful for the President of the United States to 
revoke their commissions whenever it should be made to 
appear to him that they were unqualified, intemperate, in- 
competent, or neglected to perform the duties of their offices. 

Second. A bill to amend the organic act ; the first section 
of which provided, that the secretary, attorney, and mar- 
shal of the Territory should hold their offices, respectively, 
for the term of two years, unless sooner removed by tlie 
President, and that on the third day of July, 1840, and every 
two years thereafter the said offices should become vacant. 

The second section provided that the term of service 
of the members of the Legislative Council should be limited 
to two years, and that of members of the House to one year, 
to be computed from the 1st of January, 1841. That the 



300 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Legislative Assembly should hold one session annually, 
commencing on 1st Monday in October. The Governor 
might convene the Assembly whenever, in his opinion, the 
public interests rendered it necessary; but its session or ses- 
sions should in no one year exceed the term of forty days, 
nor should any law passed by the Legislative Assembly 
take effect until submitted to Congress. 

The third section, restricted the authority of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly to levy taxes, to three mills on the dollar of 
assessed valuation for all purposes whatever. 

The fourth section related to the right of redeeming lands 
sold for tax3s. 

The fifth section provided that the Secretary, Marshal 
and Attorney should reside at the seat of Government of 
the Territory ; and the judges in the judicial districts, to 
which they might respectively have been assigned. 

Third. A joint resolution, declaring that certain laws of 
the Territory, designated by their titles, 

" Shall be and the same are herebj- disapproved by the Congress of the United States, 
from the date of the passage of said laws." 

There were twenty-one of these laws and resolutions of 
which nine laws created private corporations; two related 
to the corporation of the borough of Green Bay, one to the 
corporation of the town of Milwaukee; one legalized the 
proceedings of commissioners of Milwaukee county; one for 
the relief of the county officers of Brown county; one au- 
thorized the erection of a dam across Rock River; the 
other law, and the one in which the delegate was supposed 
to have a personal interest, was the act of March 8, 1839, 
which removed the commissioners of public buildings, 
passed December 3, 183G, and provided for the election of 
new commissioners. 

Of the resolutions specified, two related to the transporta- 
tion of the mail between Madison and Milwaukee, and three 
in relation to fiscal agencies. 

Fourth. A bill concerning the southern boundary of Wis- 
consin. 

Fifth. A bill to provide for the construction of harbors 
in Wisconsin. 

Sixth. A bill to continue the duty on lead imported into 
the United States. This bill provided that in lieu of the 
duties then imposed by law on lead, the duty should be 
three cents per pound on lead in pigs, bars, pipes, sheets and 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 301 

scrap lead; three and one-half cents on leaden shot or balls 
and four cents on red or white lead. 

Seventh. A bill to authorize the erection of a penitentiary, 
which granted and appropriated ten thousand dollars to the 
Territory for the purpose of constructing a penitentiary at 
such place as the Legislative Assembly should select, to be 
drawn and expended by that body after the location, plans, 
and estimates should have been made and contracts en- 
tered into for its erection, and satisfactory evidence thereof 
should have been exhibited to the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. 

None of these seven measures were adopted by Congress. 
No appropriation was made for harbors, light-houses, roads, 
or for any internal improvements whatever, nor for any ob- 
ject of direct interest to the Territory, except the annual 
appropriation for the salaries of the Governor, Secretary, 
and Judges, which was the usual amount of $9,100; for con- 
tingent expenses, $350, and for the pay and mileage of the 
members of the Legislative Assembly, pay of officers, print- 
ing, furniture, stationery, fuel, and other incidental expenses, 
the sum of $34,075. 

The subject of appropriations by Congress for harbors on 
the western coast of Lake Michigan, and for roads into the 
interior, was of great importance to the people, and a har- 
bor at Milwaukee and roads from that point were, by com- 
mon consent, regarded as of the first importance. Public 
meetings at Milwaukee, Madison, and otlier points were held, 
pressing these measures upon the favorable consideration 
of Congress, and petitions for the same purpose w^ere pre- 
sented to Congress, signed very generally by the inhabitants 
of all parts of the Territory, and great disappointment was 
felt at the result. 

An act was passed, approved June 1,1840, which extended 
the provisions of the pre-emption act of 1838, until June 23, 
1842, to all settlers on the public lands at the date of its pas- 
sage. 

A general law was also passed, to the effect that whenever 
the surveys and records in any district for which surveyors- 
general had been or might be appointed, should be completed, 
the surveyor-general thereof should be required to deliver 
over to the Secretary of State of the respective States, in- 



302 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

eluding such surveys, all the field notes, maps, records, and 
other papers appertaining to land titles within the same; 
and that the office of surveyor- general in every such dis- 
trict should thereafter cease and be discontinued. 

The other section of this law provided that whenever the 
quantity of public land remaining unsold in any land dis- 
trict should be reduced to one hundred thousand acres, it 
should be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to dis- 
continue the land offices of such district, and that the unsold 
lands in such district should be subject to sale at the most 
convenient of the other land districts, of which the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury shall give notice. 

The third session of the second Legislative Assembly con- 
vened at Madison on the second day of December, 1839. The 
terms for which the members were elected had not yet ex- 
pired, but there were several changes of membership caused 
by resignations. 

In the Council Alexander J. Irwin of Brown county had 
resigned and Charles C. P. Arndt elected to fill the vacancy; 
Marshall M. Strong of Racine county had resigned and 
Lorenzo Janes elected to supply the vacancy, and in Craw- 
ford county Joseph Brisbois v/as elected in place of George 
Wilson, resigned. 

In the House, Messrs. Lucius I. Barber, Henry C. Skin- 
ner and EzEKiEL Churchill of Milwaukee county re- 
signed in pursuance of pledges given at the time of their 
election and Adam E. Ray, William R. Longstreet and 
Horatio N. Wells were elected to fill their unexpired 
terms, and in Grant county Jonathan Craig was elected in 
place of Ralph Carver, 

James Collins of Iowa county was re-elected president of 
the council on the nineteenth ballot, the balloting having 
been protracted until the sixth day of the session. 

Edward V. Whiton of Rock county was elected speaker 
■on the fourth day of the session and on the fifth ballot. 

In the meantime both houses had been temporarily or- 
ganized by the election of William Bullen, president 
pro tem. of the Council, and Ebenezer Childs, Speaker pj^o 
tern, of the House. 

The following table of the places of the nativity of the 
members of the two Houses, their residence and occupation 
is supposed to possess some historic interest. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 



303 



MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. 



N.AMES OF Members. 


County op 
Residence. 


State of 
Nativity. 


Occupation. 


Morgan L. Martin 


Brown 




Lawyer. 
Lawyer. 

Farmer 


Charles C. P. Arndt 


Brown 


Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 

Massachusetts 

Kej^ituckv 


Joseph Brisbois 


Crawford 

Dane 


Ebenezer Brigham 




John H. Rountree 


Grant 


Farmer, 


James R. Vineyard 


Grant 

Iowa 


Kentuckv . . 


Farmer 


James Collins 






Levi Sterling 


Iowa 


Kentucky 

Massachusetts 

Maine 


Farmer 


AViLLiAM A. Prentiss 


Milwaukee 

Milwaukee 

Racine 


Meroliant 


Daniel Wells, Jr 




William Bullen 


New York 


Merchant 


Lorenzo Janes 


Racine 


Vermont 


Lawyer. 

Ffi rmpr 


James Maxwell 


Walworth 


Vermont . 









MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



Name of Member. 


County op 
Residence. 


State op 
Nativity. 


Occupation. 


Ebenezer Childs 


Brown 

Brown 

Brown 

Manitowoc 

Crawford 

Crawford 

Green 

Grant 


Massachusetts 

Connecticut 

Virginia 


Mechanic. 

Printer. 

Lawyer. 

Mechanic 

Lawyer. 

Farmer. 


Charles C. Sholes 

Barlow Shackleford 


Jacob W. Conroe 


Vermont 

Ohio 

New York 


Ira B. Brunson 

Alexander McGreggor 


Daniel S. Sutherland 


New York 


Farmer 


Nelson Dewey 


Connecticut 

Virginia 


Lawj-er. 

Farmer and Miner. 

Farmer. 

Merchaiif 


Thomas Cruson 


Grant 

Grant 

Grant 


Joseph IT. D. Street 

Jonathan Craig 


Kentucky 

Virginia 


Russell Baldwin 


Iowa 


New-York 

New York 




John W. Blackstone 


Iowa .. 

Iowa 




Henry M. Billings 


New York 




Thomas Jenkins 

Charles Bracken 

William Shew 

Augustus Story 


Iowa 

Iowa 

Milwaukee 

Milwaukee 

Milwaukee 


South Carolina 

Pennsylvania 

New York 

Massachusetts 

New York 


Farmer and Miner. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 


Adam E. Ray 


Farmer. 



304 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES — Continued. 



« 

Name op Member. 


County op 
Residence. 


State op 
Nativity. 


Occupation. 


William R. Longstreet 

Horatio N. Wells 

Orrin R. Stevens 


Milwaukee 

Milwaukee 

Racine 

Racine 

Racine 

Rock 

Walworth 


Pennsylvania 

New York 


Farmer. 
Lawyer. 


New Hampshire . . . 

Connecticut 

New Hampshire . . . 

Massachusetts 

New York 


Farmer. 
Farmer. 


Tristram C Hoyt 


Farmer. 


Edward V. Whiton 


Lawyer. 
Farmer. 









The Governor having been notified of the organization of 
the two Houses, delivered his message in person on the sec- 
ond day of the session. 

The message suggested the propriety of the passage of a 
resolution, recommending to the electors to determine by 
their votes at the next election, whether they were for or 
against the organization of a state government. 

It recommended the propriety of memorializing Congress 
for an appropriation of $30,000 for the erection of a peniten- 
tiary in the Territory; also for suitable appropriations for 
the improvement of the navigation of the Fox River of 
Green Bay, the Wisconsin, Rock, Peckatonica and Platte 
Rivers and the river of the Four Lakes; for the construction 
of harbors on Lake Michigan; for additional appropriations 
for the construction of the Territorial road from Milwaukee 
by way of Madison to a point opposite Dubuque, and from 
Racine by Janesville to Sinipee, and for a further appro- 
priation for the survey of a railroad from the town of Mil- 
waukee to the Mississippi river. 

The message presented for the serious consideration of the 
Legislative Assembly the embarrassed state of the currency, 
and that a forced sale of property under the existing exec- 
ution laws, would deprive the debtor of the means of sup- 
port, and in many cases prevent the creditor from the 
recovery of his debt, and suggested that if a stay of twelve 
months could be given on execution, upon proper S(;curity, 
that no injustice would be done to the plaintiff; while in 
legislative action between debtor and creditor, a due regard 
should be had for the rights of both. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 305 

It recommended to the Legislative Assembly the propriety 
of taking such legal measures as they might deem neces- 
sary to ascertain the true state and condition of the Bank 
of Mineral Point. 

The propriety of again memorializing Congress for an ex- 
tension of the right of pre-emption to miners in possession 
of mineral lots, was called to the attention of the Legislative 
Assembly. 

Tt also stated that the commissioners appointed to locate 
a portion of the University lands, not having been officially 
notified of their appointment, their duties remained unper- 
formed, and it recommended the propriety of adopting such 
measures as would ensure an early location of these lands. 

The various parts of the message were referred in each 
house to different committees. 

The excitements and animosities developed in the election 
campaign of the preceding August were visible in their ef- 
fects during the winter of 1839-40. 

During that campaign the conduct of Judge Doty in re- 
lation to land titles at Madison, as well as that in relation to 
his office as one of the commissioners of public build- 
ings and treasurer had been assailed. 

In defending himself in the newspapers against the 
charge in relation to the land titles he imputed to Gov. 
Stevens T. Mason of Detroit, who with Judge Doty had 
originally made a joint purchase from the United States of 
the land in question, a disposition to swindle the public and 
the Judge out of the property. 

Gov. Mason on the eve of his departure from Detroit, on 
what proved to be an extended absence, characterized the 
publication of Judge Doty in opprobrious terms and sttited 
that at an early day an explicit statement of the transaction 
between Doty" and himself would be submitted, and in con- 
clusion asked 

" A suspension of judgment by a public who are too intelligent to be misled by the mis- 
representations of a designing knave " 

On his return to Detroit in November, Gov. Mason pub- 
lished another card in the papers in which he stated that 
his promised reply had been prepared, but before its publi- 
cation the controversy had assumed a judicial character, 
and that a proper respect for the court induced him to refrain 
from any publication of the facts in the case. He had, how- 

20 



306 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

ever, he stated, placed on the records of the court a full 
reply to Doty's allegations and he hoped at a becoming 
time his attorney would 

" Lay it before the people of ■Wisconsin that they may see reflected in the person of 
their delegate in Congress the features of a liar, a calumniator and a swindler." 

The controversy about the land titles was in some manner 
settled, so that it never reached a judicial determination, 
but in connection with the troubles growing out of the erec- 
tion of public buildings at Madison, had a marked effect 
upon the action of the Legislative Assembly at its session 
of 1839-40. Indeed the investigation of matters connected 
with the building of the capitol occupied much of the time 
of that session. 

Comparatively little work had been done upon the Capitol 
after the adjournment of the second session in March and 
the commencement of the third session in December. The 
new commissioners had no public funds, and the total ex- 
penditures on the Capitol to fit it for the reception of the 
Legislature was only $:^31, and this was advanced by the 
new commissioners. 

The commissioners elected at the preceding session of the 
Legislative Assemby submitted to the Governor a report, 
dated July 1 6, which stated that the board met on the 8th 
of May, and elected N. C. Prentiss acting commissioner, 
and J. L. Thayer, treasurer; that they had been assiduous 
in their efforts to settle the accounts of the former board, 
which had all proved unavailing, and they had been unable 
to obtain a meeting with them, or with the contractor, who 
was doing nothing in execution of his contract to complete 
the Capitol by the 20th of September. 

Another report was made by the new commissioners to 
the Legislative Assembly on the 2d of December, in which 
the statement of their unavailing efforts at settlement is re- 
peated, followed by a statement that in September a suit 
was instituted in the name of the Territory against the for- 
mer commissioners for the recovery of the public moneys in 
their hands. The suit was still pending, and the commis- 
sioners predicted that the Territory would be debarred from 
the use of the money in the bands of the late treasurer and 
contractor until it should be recovered by the force of an 
execution. 

A suit, they state, had also been commenced against 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 307 

James Morrison, the contractor, for a breach of contract, 
and for the recovery of the public moneys in his hands. 

This report further states that the contract of James Mor- 
rison for completing the Capitol expired on the 20th of Sep- 
tember. That on the 23d of September the commissioners 
took possession of the building after having been refused 
by the agent of the contractor. That soon after Morrison 
broke the lock of the door and took forcible possession of the 
building. That they commenced an action of forcible entry 
and detainer, obtained a writ of restitution, by means of 
which they regained possession of the Capitol, which they 
had ever since retained, and commenced fitting it up for the 
reception of the Legislature. 

The report further states that from a continued chain of 
circumstances and a variety of facts 

"We are imhesitatingly of the opinion tliat a co-partnership lias existed and does still ex- 
ist between the late board of commissioners and the contractor, and that the late board 
have been during their continuance in office actins? in the double capacity of commission- 
ers and contractor, showing a fraudulent design to speculate and trade upon tlie funds of 
the Territory without regard to its best interests." 

The report gives a statement of the receipts of the old 
board of commissioners, and an estimate of their expendi- 
tures and shows the sum of $21,345.40, in the hands of the 
former commissioners and contractor, the prospect of col- 
lecting which is such (they state) 

"That we believe the Capitol must remain for some time to come in its present unfin- 
ished condition and the Territory in the unfortunate situation of a party in suits that have 
already been commenced and are now pending." 

The first report of the commissioners to the Governor was 
submitted by him to the Legislative Assembly with his an- 
nual message and a statement that it was due to the people 

"That pioper measures should be adopted to ascertain what disposition had been made 
of that part of the appropriation which had not been accounted for." 

During the first week of the session a resolution was of- 
fered in the House instructing a committee to inquire into 
the expediency of bringing in a bill to provide for the re- 
moval of the seat of government, which having been 
amended by adding "and of converting the present public 
buildings into a penitentiary" it was lost by a vote of 
9 to IG. 

So much of the Governor's message as relates to the pub- 
lic buildings, having been referred in the House to a select 
committee consisting of Messrs. Cruson, Shew and Jenkins; 



y08 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the reports of the commissioners of pubHc buildings were re- 
ferred to the same committee which was authorized to send 
for persons and papers and administer oaths, and by the 
subsequent action of both houses was made a joint commit- 
tee, and Messrs. Maxwell and Vineyard of the Council 
added to the committee. 

On the 3d of January, Mr, Cruson, from the majority of 
the joint select committee, and Mr. Sholes, in behalf of Mr. 
Maxwell, from the minority, submitted reports. 

The report of the majority states that 

"Although more than two years had elapsed from the time the commissioners were 
elected, until they were superseded, and although they were supplied with funds that were 
more than ample for the erection of suitable buildings, yet at the time of the election of 
new commissioners, they had done little more than erect a shell of a capitol, which is 
scarcely capable of sustaining its own weight, and which, unless it is speedily secui'ed by 
extensive repairs must become a heap of ruins." 

The report states that the Treasurer of the Commission- 
ers, Mr, Doty, received from the Treasurer of the United 
States, the whole of both the appropriations made by Con- 
gress ($40,000.) 

" That the unaccountable and unprecedented refusal of these agents of the people to 
submit their accounts for examination and settlement has deprived your committee of the 
only correct means of ascertaining with any degree of certainty, in what manner that 
money has been expended. A very slight examination of the results of the doings of 
these commissioners, is sufficient to satisfy any one, that it has not been expended where 
the law intended it should be, to wit : in the erection of the public buildings. Upon the 
most liberal estimate of the buildings which have been erected at Madison, they cannot 
have expended more than $19,000 ia the erection of them, which would leave in their hands 
a balance of S21,000 unexpended " * ******* 

'' The former commissioners not content with having withheld a large proportion of the 
money which properly belonged to the Territory, denied the right of the Legislature to 
pass any law which should operate to remove them from office and refused to settle with 
the new board of commissioners, or to pay over tc> them any monej' in their hands." * * 

*** ** ** *** ***i: 

" Your committee look upon the conduct of the commissioners as reprehensible in the . 
highest degree, and such as should justly bring upon them the censure of all who desire 
to see the laws of our country upheld and enforced. That sensible men should assume 
the position that the same power which created their office could not destroy it, appears to 
your committee so perfectly preposterous that they cannot avoid the conclusion that the 
commissioners must have been actuated, in taking that ground, by a design to keep the 
people in ignorance of their doings, and indeed their whole proceedings from the time they 
first entered upon the discharge of their duties seems to support that conclusion, and 
taken in connection with other facts to which your committee will presently advert, can- 
not fail to convince the iinbiased that there has been for a long time past a secret co-part- 
nership existing between James D. Uoty, J. F. O'Neill and Augustus A. Bird, the late 
commissioners, and James Morrison, the contractor, by which they were to share in the 
pn ifits or loss resulting from Morrison's contract, as well also as of the mercantile and other 
business at Madison that was conducted ostensibly by Morrison." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 309 

The report concludes with a comphmentary reference to 
the manner in which the new board have discharged their 
duties, and says — 

"The disposition they have evinced upon all occasions to promote the interest of the 
TeiTitory, entitles them in the opinion of your committee, to the approbation of all. " 

A large amount of evidence was taken by the committee, 
which is submitted with their report, which appears to fully 
sustain its conclusions. 

The committee reported a bill and recommended its pas- 
sage, which was subsequently passed by both houses with- 
out material amendment. 

The only important feature of this law was to provide for 
the annual election of one commissioner of public buildings 
instead of three. 

The minority report of Mr. Maxwell, the only member 
of the committee who dissented from the report of the 
majority was very brief, and presented these points: 

First. That he deems — 

"The report of a similar committee amply sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical that 
the former board of commissioners of public buildings had not acted in conformity to law 
in the discharge of their duties, and that anj- further investigatioi could in no way change 
the results of said former report." 

Second. "Because on the suggestion of the former report a new board of commi.ssioners 
were elected, authorized to adjust and settle the accounts of the old board, and acting 
under that authority have commenced suits against the old board in the name of the Ter- 
ritory." 

Third. "That the majority of your committee assumed the )30wers of a grand inquest 
and went into the forms of an ex imrte trial, all of wliich I deem a work of supererogation, 
and one calculated to act prematurely and improperly on the prejudices of the public 
while such suit or suits are pending." 

And further that the investigation of the majority of 
your committee, of matters anterior to the report of a 
former committee (before alluded to) with the accompany- 
ing documents would, in the opinion of a minority of your 
committee be too apparent of a design for effect, rather 
than for any beneficial results to the best interests of this 
Territory. 

The minority of your committee cheerfully concurs in 
that part of the majority report which approves of the 
doings of the present board of commissioners of public 
buildings, and also in the principles of the bill submitted 
for the consideration of the Legislature. 

There was no subject which excited a more lively and 
general interest among the people of the Territory at that 



310 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

time, and the omission of anything: material to it would be 
a failure to portray a faithful history of that period. 

After the reports of the committee had been made, the 
speaker laid before the House on the 7th of January a state- 
ment of Augustus A. Bird, which admits the co-partner- 
ship between the commissioners and the contractor in the 
erection of the hotel and in the mercantile concern, and 
gives copies of the written agreements in relation to such 
co-partnership, but denies that there was any agreement of 
co-partnership in Morrison's contract for completing the 
capitol. This statement, of Mr. Bird was afterwards sworn 
to and then referred to a committee with instructions to re- 
port next day as to the genuineness of the contracts and 
the allegations set forth in the statement. 

The committee had no evidence before it, nor any author- 
ity to obtain any, and upon that statement alone, submitted 
on the next day the following report: 

" That from the facts before us no reason appears why full faith and credit should not be 
attached to the statements of Mr. Bird. That there can be no doubt as to the genuineness 
of the contracts and that they have no evidence before them to induce the belief, nor the 
sUghtest reason of any kind to believe that there are any other contracts in existence be- 
tween the parties implicated in the report of the majority of the committee on public 
buildings.'" 

Mr. CoNROE of the committee, dissented from the report. 

The bill reported by the committee on public buildings be- 
came a law by the approval of the Governor on the 11th of 
January, and on the same day, Nathaniel C. Prentiss 
was elected Commissioner of Public Buildings on a joint 
ballot of the two Houses. 

Some weeks after the adjournment of the Legislature, a 
letter appeared in the newspapers from James D. Doty, to 
Hon. John Pope, chairman of the committee on territories 
in H. of R. — which bore the date, Washington, February 
20, 1840. 

This letter professed to give a statement of all the facts in 
relation to the action of Congress, the Territorial Legisla- 
ture, the old and the new board of commissioners in relation 
to the public buildings at Madigon, the appropriations for 
their erection and the conduct of the commissioners in their 
expenditure. 

The letter contained many statements, which were fully 
supported by the facts, and many which were not. 

It presents the idea that the action of Congress of June 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 311 

18, 1838, making a second appropriation for completing the 
capitol, was 

"An affirmance of the proceedings of the Legislature and of the Commissioners," and 
"that the act to establish the scat of government at Madison, was not sul^ect to be re- 
pealed by the Territorial Legislature, without the assent of Congress." 

The object of this letter appeared to be to obtain the dis- 
approval by Congress of the act of March 9, 1839 (by virtue 
of which the old commissioners were removed and new ones 
appointed); which, the letter states, was now first submitted 
to Congress ; and of all laws on this subject passed subse- 
qent thereto, 

Messrs. M. M. Strong and F. J. Dunn, attorneys for the 
Territory, in the suits which were pending against the old 
board of commissioners, the treasurer and his sureties, and 
the contractor, believing, as they stated, 

"That Mr. Doty was prompted in the effort which he was making to procure the disap- 
proval of the act of March 9, 1S39, by a desire to affect the decision of the se suits, considered 
it their duty to make a brief statement of facts iu relation to the matters adverted to in 
Mr. Doty's letter," 

and addressed a letter to Mr. Pope, chairman of the commit- 
tee, dated March 29, 1840. 

The letter corrected the misrepresentations which, they 
stated, were contained in Doty's letter, and set forth other 
facts which were not stated in it, and concluded with the ex- 
pression of the confident hope — 

"That Congress would take no action on the subject, which woidd tend to confer author- 
ity upon men whom the representatives of the people of Wisconsin have rejected, and to 
divert it from those whom the same representatives have selected as agents, in whom 
they could repose confidence, and more especially when such action would affect the rights 
of the Territory in relation to matters which were then the subject of judicial investiga- 
tion." 

The act of March 9, 1839, removed the old commissioners 
and treasurer, and on the 4th of April, 1840, Mr. Doty per- 
formed the idle ceremony of addressing a communication 
to the Legislative Assembly, offering his resignation of the 
office of commissioner of public buildings and treasurer of 
the board — offices from which he had been removed nearly 
thirteen months previously, and which during that time he 
had not held. 

Mr. Doty's only defense of his conduct, and that of his 
co-commissioners and the contractor, was based upon the 
assumption that the acts of the Legislative Assembly did 
not become effective until submitted to Congress, and that 
the act of March 9, 1839, not having been submitted to Con- 



312 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

gress before the new commissioners were elected, that the 
old ones were not superseded. 

This assumption was judicially determined by the Chief 
Justice to be erroneous, who held that the sixth section of 
the organic act, having declared : 

" That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of leg- 
islation," and that " all the latvs of the Governor and Legislative Assembly shall be submit- 
ted to, and if disapproved by the Congress of the United States, shall be nuU and of no 
effect;" 

All laivs, when enacted by the Governor and Legislative 
Assembly, became effective, subject to being annulled and 
rendered of no effect by the subsequent disapproval of Con- 
gress, when they should be submitted to that body. 

The citizens of Madison felt perhaps a deeper interest than 
any others in the question raised by Judge Doty, and J, A. 
NooNAN and John Catlin of that place, addressed letters to 
H. IST. Wells, Attorney General, Moses M. Strong, United 
States Attorney, Edward V. Whiton, late Chief Justice, 
Hans Crocker and Morgan L . Martin, eminent and able 
lawyers, asking their opinions on the question, each of 
whom wrote very able opinions, some of which, especially 
that of Judge Whiton, were entirely exhaustive of the sub- 
ject, and all of which fully sustained the authoritative 
opinion of Chief Justice Dunn. 

The matter of the southern boundary and the formation 
of a State Government were subjects which did not fail to 
attract much of the attention of this session of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. 

So much of the Governors message as related to these 
subjects was referred in each house. In the Council to the 
committee on Territorial affairs, consisting of Messrs. Brig- 
ham, Vineyard and Wells, and in the House to a select 
committee consisting of one from each election district, 
composed of Messrs. Shackelford, Longstreet, Hoyt, 
Beardsley, Sutherland, Jenkins, Street and Brunson. 
Various propositions were submitted, entertained, reported 
upon and considered in each house, and all resulted in 
adopting the following joint resolutions — 

"Whereas, the southern boundary of this Territory and of the State to be formed 
therein, is fixed and established by the ordinance of July 13, 1787, on a line running due 
west from the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan to the Mississiispi River. 

And whereas, although said ordinance is declared to be forever unalterable, unless by 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 013 

common consent, a large and valuable tract of country is now held by the State of Illinois, 
contrary to the manifest right and consent of the people of this Territory. 

And whereas, it is inexpedient for the people of this Territory to form a constitution 
and State Government, or to ask admission in the Union as an independent State, imtil 
the southern boiuidary to which they are so justly entitled by said ordinance shall be fully 
recognized by the partiesto the original compact; therefore — 

'"Resolved, That the inhabitants of this Territory qualified to vote for delegate in Con- 
gress, be requested at the next general election, to be held on the fourth Monday of Sep- 
tember next, to vote for or against the formation of a state government, including aU that 
district of country north of a line running due west from the most southerly bend or 
extreme of Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, over which the State of Illinois exer- 
cises jurisdiction, and if a majority of such electors vote in favor of said measure, the 
Governor is hereby authorized to issue his proclamation requesting the electors aforesaid 
to meet in their respective precincts on such a day as he may appoint and choose delegates 
from their resiiective districts equal to the number of representatives in both branches of the 
Legislative Assembly, to assemble at the capitol in Madison on the third Monday of No- 
vendjer for the purpose of deliberating upon and adopting such lawful and constitu- 
tional measures as may seem to be necessary and proper for the early adjustment of the 
southern boundary, and admission into the Union of the State of Wisconsin on an equal 
footing with the original states in all respects ivhatever. 

Resolved further. That the inhabitants of the district of country now claimed by Illinois 
lying north of the line running due west from the southern extreme of Lake Michigan to 
the Mississippi River be, and are hereby invited to furnish the executive of this Territory 
as early as may be convenient, and in such manner as they may deem proper, an expres- 
sion of their sentiments in relation to the formation of a state government as contemplated 
by the foregoing resolution, and in the event of an election being ordered by the procla- 
mation of the Governor, for the election of del egates to a convention as above provided 
for, to choose delegates to the convention aforesaid, proportionate to the ratio of repre- 
sentation in the Legislative Assembly of this Teri-itory, to act on the business of said con- 
vention on an equal footing with the other delegates " 

The resolutions provided for the manner of conducting the 
elections and determining the results. 

By a resolution subsequently adopted at the August ses- 
sion, it was declared that the words in the first resolution 
which are italicised, should — 

" Not be so construed as to authorize the said convention to adopt a State Constitution 
and form of govermnent, or to declare themselves an independent State." 

The passage of these resolutions aroused considerable 
feeling among those on the " disputed territory/' who were 
in favor of becoming a part of the State of Wisconsin, and 
public meetings to give expression to this feeling were held 
at Galena, Belvidere, and Rockford, which culminated in a 
general convention of delegates from Jo Davies, Stephenson, 
Winnebago, Boone, McHenry, Ogle, Carroll, Whitesides, and 
Rock Island counties, held at Rockford on the 6th of July, 

This convention adopted resolutions declaring the right 
of Wisconsin to the "disputed territory," and recommended 



314 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

to the citizens to elect delegates to the convention to form 
a State government should one be held. 

But the resolutions of the Wisconsin Legislature did not 
elicit the exhibition of much feeling within the Territory, 
and that feeling was mostly one of opposition to the objects 
of the resolutions. 

At a public meeting held at Green Bay on the 24th of 
April, it was declared that they had seen the resolutions 
with concern and regret, and that the members of the Leg- 
islature be requested to vote to rescind them. 

There was but a very light vote upon the question submit- 
ted by the resolutions themselves, and that vote was almost 
unanimously " against State Government." 

This vote, it is believed, was more the result of an appre- 
hension that a majority vote " for State Government" would 
lead to the premature formation of a State government, 
than of any objection to embracing the " disputed territory" 
within the boundaries, when the proper time for its forma- 
tion should have arrived. 

. In the House of Representatives at the session of 1839-40, 
so much of the Governor's message as relates to banks was 
referred to the committee on corporations, which consisted 
of Messrs. Street, Shew, Sholes, Blackstone and Jenkins. 

The committee reported that the Bank of Mineral Point 
was — 

' 'The only legal banking institution now in the Territory; and your committee are of 
opinion from the best information in their possession, that it is in a sound and solvent 
condition." 

A bill for the election of a bank commissioner was recom- 
mended, but is met with no favor. 

The conduct of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance 
Company in conducting banking business in alleged viola- 
tion of the restrictions of its charter, was discussed, but no 
definite action taken. 

Notwithstanding the recommendation of the message of 
the Governor, no law was passed granting any stay upon 
executions, or to relieve debtors from forced sales upon exe- 
cution. 

The expenditure of the appropriations by Congress for the 
construction of roads in Wisconsin made previous to 1840, 
was placed in charge of Captain Thos. J. Cram, of the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 315 

United States Engineer Corps. In his report to the Chief of 
the Bureau, that officer recommended the following addi- 
tional appropriations: 

1 . From Green Bay via Milwaukee and Eacine to the State line $33,381 .00 

3. For the completion of the road from Sauk Harbor to Dekorre 12,700.00 

3. From Fond dii Lac via Fox Lake to Wisconsin River, nothing, the first 

appropriation being sufficient. 

4. From Milwaukee via Madison to a point on the Mississippi River, opposite 

Dubuque 15,000.00 

5. From Racine via Jane»ville to Sinnipee 22,020.00 

6. From Fort Howard^ to Fort Crawford , 35,207.00 

7. For the completion of the right kind of a survey of a railroad from Lake 

Michigan to the Mississippi River 11,250.00 

Total additional appropriations recommended $130,218.00 

None of these appropriations, however, nor any other for 
improvements in Wisconsin, were made by Congress. 

An act was passed prescribing the manner in which Ter- 
ritorial roads should be laid out, surveyed and recorded. It 
also prescribed that 

" No part of the expense of laying out and establishing any Territorial road, or of the 
damages svistained by any person or persons in consequence of laying out any Territorial 
road, shall be paid out of the Territorial or County Treasury." 

The effect of this provision was that all such expenses 
and damages had to be provided for by individual personal 
contributions, and the only advantage of an act to provide 
for locating a Territorial road, was that if laid out accord- 
ing to the requirements of the law, a legal highway could be 
established. 

Notwithstanding this provision, acts were passed for lay- 
ing out twenty-eight Territorial roads in the various por- 
tions^ of the Territory, at the winter session, and for two 
others at the August session. 

The peaceable removal west of the Mississippi of the Win- 
nebago Indians, wdiose presence had given the frontier set- 
lers so much annoyance, was effected in the early part of 
the year 184:0, and was a subject of congratulation in the 
message of the Governor at the August special session. The 
message said: 

" The removal of the Winnebagoes will enable our enterprizing citizens to extend their 
settlements to a desirable and interesting country north of the Wisconsin River." 

A public sale of land was held at Green Bay on the Gth of 
April, 1840, at which all that part of Winnebago county be- 



31G HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

tweeii Winnebago Lake and Fox and Wolf Rivers was of- 
fered for sale, embracing the towns of Winchester, Clay- 
ton, Vineland, and that part of the towns of Wolf River and 
Winneconne east of those rivers, and the cities and towns 
of Menasha and Neenah, and that part of Oshkosh north of 
Fox River, 

On the 13th of April a public sale was held at Milwaukee 
of that part of the towns of Beloit, Rock, Janesville, Fulton 
and Milton in the county of Rock whiqh lie east of Rock 
River, embracing the cities of Beloit and Janesville and the 
village of Milton. 

An act was passed January 11, 1840, which authorized the 
Governor to contract with the Marshal of the Territory, at 
a sum not exceeding six hundred dollars, to furnish to the 
Oovernor on or before the Isfc day of August, a transcript 
of the census of the Territory taken by him in pursuance 
of the act of Congress authorizing the taking of the sixth 
census. 

The act also provided that there should be an extra ses- 
sion of the Legislative Assembly on the first Monday of 
August. 

The two houses adjourned on the 13th of January and 
the extra session — the fourth of the second Legislative As- 
sembly — convened on the third day of August. 

But one change in the composition of the Legislature oc- 
curred during the recess. Joseph Brisbois, member of the 
Council from Crawford county, had resigned and Charles 
J. Learned was elected as his successor and took his seat on 
the first day of the session. 

Morgan L. Martin was elected President pro tern., and on 
the second day William A. Prentiss, of Milwaukee, was, 
on the first ballot, elected permanent President. 

In the House of Representatives Edward V. Whiton was 
elected Speaker pro tern., and on the second day a ballot was 
had for Speaker for the session, on which Nelson Dewey 
received 9 votes, Charles C, Sholes 7, Barlow Shackel- 
ford 4, and there were 3 scattering, when Messrs. Sholes 
and Shackelford declined being candidates, and Nelson 
Dewey received 21 of the 23 votes cast, and was elected on 
the second ballot. 

The message of the Governor was brief, and confined 
mainly to the special object of the session — the apportion- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 317 

ment — but tendered his co-operation in such acts of legisla- 
tion as " have for their object the good of our constituents." 

Attention was invited by the message to the failure on the 
part of the contractor in printing the laws of the late ses- 
sion, which was criticised. 

The propriety of investigating the condition of the Bank 
of Mineral Point was recommended, and the advisability of 
appointing by law a bank commissioner was suggested. 

The following is the official census : 

Brown county 2,107 

Calumet county 270 

Crawford county 1,508 

Dane county 215 

Dodge county 67 

Fond du Lac county 139 

Green county 933 

Grant county 3,923 

Iowa county 3,977 

Jetf erson county 9^4 

Manitowoc county 235 

Marquette county 18 

Milwaukee county 5,601 

Portage county 1,623 

Racine county 3,475 

Rock county 1,701 

Sauk comity 102 

Sheboygan county 133 

St. Croix county 618 

Walworth county 2,610 

Washington county 343 

Winnebago county 135 



Total 30,747 

Under the organic act members of the Council had been 
elected for four years, and could not be affected by any new 
apportionment, as one half of the term for which they were 
elected was unexpired. Members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives having been elected for only two years, about half 
of which had expired, an entire new apportionment was not 
practicable. 

The plan of apportionment of the members of the House 
of Representatives was to distribute them among the exist- 
ing districts for members of the council. 

By this plan the following apportionment was made: 

The district composed of the county of Brown and the 
counties thereto attached, had three members. 



318 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The district composed of the counties of Milwaukee and 
"Washington, had five members. 

Racine county had three members 

The district composed of Walworth and Rock counties 
had four members. 

The district composed of the counties of Dane, Dodge, 
Green, Jefferson and Sauk, had two members. 

Iowa county had four members. 

Grant county had three members. 

And the district composed of Crawford and St. Croix 
■counties, had two members. 

Three districts lost one member each. These were Brown 
and the counties attached, Iowa and Grant. The districts 
which gained were Rock and Walworth, two members ; 
Dane, Dodge, Green, Jefferson and Sauk, one member. The 
number of representatives in the other districts was un- 
changed. 

At the winter session of 1840, the following towns were 
created or names changed. Franklin, Menomonee, Wauwa- 
toosa, Pewaukee (spelled in the published act by mistake, 
Peraukee) and Granville, in Milwaukee county, were estab- 
lished ; Prairie Village changed to Prairieville, and Mentor 
changed to New Berlin. The town of Delavan, in Wal- 
worth county, was divided and Darien established. Pleas- 
ant Prairie, in Racine county, was divided and Bristol 
established, and in Jefferson county the town of Aztalan 
was created out of the towns of Jefferson and Watertown. 

The act of March 9, 1839, incorporating the town of Green 
Bay, was conditionally^ repealed, subject to a vote of the 
electors of the town. 

At the August session the town of Oak Creek, in Mil- 
waukee county, was organized out of the town of Lake, 
and the town of Whitewater was created out of the town of 
Elkhorn, in Walworth county. 

By an act approved January G, 1840, Calumet county was 
organized for the purpose of county government, and that 
part of the county lying south of the Indian Reservation, 
comprised in town 17, of ranges 18 and 19, was detached 
from Calumet county and attached to Fond du Lac county, 
and the remainder of Calumet county remained attached 
to Brown county for judicial purposes. 

By the same act the county of Winnebago was laid off, 
and Nathaniel Perry, Robert Grignon and Morgan L. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 319 

Martin were appointed commissioners, with authority to 
locate the county seat and enter for the use of the county 
the quarter section of land upon which the county seat 
might be located and to borrow money for that purpose. 

On the 0th of January, 1840, the county of St. Croix was 
laid off by natural boundaries and fully organized for all 
purposes. 

At the same session the county of Sauk was laid off and 
attached to Dane county for county and judicial purposes. 

The county of Dodge at this session was organized for 
county purposes, and attached to Jefferson county for 
judicial purposes. 

By an act approved August 13,1840, the county of Wash- 
ington was organized for county purposes, and continued 
attached to Milwaukee county for judicial purposes. 

So much of any act or acts as establishes or locates the 
county seat were repealed, and the question of the selection 
of the county seat was submitted to a vote of the inhabi- 
tants. 

The same act, which the title declared was "for other pur- 
poses," repealed the act of the previous session organizing 
Calumet county, and remanded it back to its former union 
with Brown county for all purposes. 

The "Bridge War"' in Milwaukee first assumed practical 
shape by the enactment at the winter session, 1840, of a law 
which authorized and required the county commissioners 
of Milwaukee county to locate and construct a drawbridge 
across the Milwaukee River from the foot of Chestnut 
street to the foot of Division street. 

At the same session Hoel S. Wright was authorized to 
erect a toll bridge across Fox River at the mouth of Plum 
Creek, where " Wrightstown " now is. 

A special act passed at that session authorized Wm. H. 
Bruce and others to build and maintain a dam across the 
Manitowoc River at the point where the village of Manito- 
woc Rapids has since grown up. 

An act to incorporate the Michigan and Rock River Rail- 
road Company was passed at that session which authorized 
the corporation to construct a railroad 

" From the Rock River, at a point at or near where the line of the State of Illinois 
crosses the same (being where Beloitnow is) to such point near Lake Michigan in the town- 
ship of Soutliport (uow Kenosha) as shall be determined on by a majority of the board of 
directors." 

" The "Wisconsin Lead Mining, Smelting and Manufacturing Company" 



3^10 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

was incorporated with a capital of one million dollars and the 
operations of the company in mining and smelting were to 
be confined to the counties of Grant and Iowa. 

The time for holding general elections was at this session 
changed from the first Monday in August to the fourth Mon- 
day of September. 

A very anomalous divorce act was passed at this session, 
which recited that 

"Joseph R. Brown (who was the next year elected a member of the House of Representa- 
tives from St. Croix county) and Margaret Brown, a half-breed Chippewa woman, were 
legally married and were mutually desirous of dissolving the marriage contract in conse- 
quence of the danger they both incur of the destruction of their lives and property by con- 
tinuing to live together, at the place where they have been accustomed to and now 
reside, on accoimt of the hostile incursions of the Sioux Indians." 

That it should be lawful for them by a written article of 
separation, under their hands and seals, to dissolve the mar- 
riage contract existing between them, provided that the ar- 
ticles of separation should contain a provision for her of 
one third of all his property. 

A joint resolution was adopted making further provision 
for the location of a portion, not exceeding two thirds, of 
all the lands granted by Congress in 1838, for the use and 
support of a university. 

The appropriations made by the Legislative Assembly, for 
the pay and mileage of members, printing, and all inci- 
dental expenses of the two sessions held in 1840, amounted 
to a total sum of $27,892.65. The excess of the expenses of 
the preceding year over the appropriation by Congress was 
$7,064,94, which two sums made $34,957.59. The appropria- 
tion by Congress for 1840 was $34,075, which still left a small 
sum of $882.59, while the appropriations of the Legislative 
Assembly for the two years of 1839 and 1840 exceeded the 
amounts appropriated by Congress during those two years 
for their liquidation. 

An important act was passed at the winter session, which 
prescribed that the term of all officers of the Territory, 
whose terms were not limited by law (except militia officers), 
should be two years, and should terminate on the first day 
of January, 1842. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. Svjl 

About the first of October John P. Sh-eldon was removed, 
from the office of Register of the Land Office, at Mineral 
Point, and John V. Ingersoll appointed as his successor. 

Maj. Sheldon, previous to his appointment to this office 
by Gen. Jackson, had been an editor of a democratic paper 
at Detroit. He was a zealous and effective partisan, with 
warm and devoted friends, and brought upon himself the 
serious and determined opposition of many opponents, 
which finally culminated in his removal. 

A large public meeting was held at Mineral Point, in 
which he was highly eulogized, and surprise and regret at 
his removal expressed. 

The presidential election of 1840 will long be remembered 
by those who were on the stage of action at that day, and 
will stand recorded in history as having been attended by a 
more exciting campaign than any which ever preceded it. 
Mr. Van Buren was the candidate of the democratic party 
for re-election, and Gen. William Henry Harrison was the 
whig candidate, with John Tyler as the candidate for Vice- 
President. 

The Whig candidates were euphoniously designated in 
the political songs as "Tippecanoe and Tyler too.*" The cam- 
paign as the "Log-cabin," "Hard Cider," "Coon skin," etc., 
campaign, arising from the free use made in public proces- 
sions and meetings of these supposed emblems of General 
Harrison's early life. 

As Wisconsin had no vote in the presidential election, the 
excitement in the Territory was only sympathetic and sec- 
ondary, and was exhibited in a partial and fragmentary or- 
ganization of the democractic party for the nomination of 
candidates for the election held in September, for members 
of the House of Representatives. Such organizations were 
formed in Brown and Iowa counties, but were not perfect, 
personal considerations entering largely into the elections, 
while the canvass in other counties was conducted entirel}'- 
upon the personal characteristics of the candidates. 

The excitement in the Territory was largely augmented 
by the publication of a paper, signed by the Delegate in 
Congress, bearing date iNew York, September 7, 1840, under 
the title of "The voice of an injured Territory." It was got- 
ten up in a style similar to the statement of grievances of the 
American colonies, at the conduct of the King of Great 
21 



323 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

Britain, contained in the Declaration of Independence. It 
was extensively circulated throughout the United States, as 
a campaign document, and undoubtedly contributed consid- 
erably to the election of the Whig candidates. 

Its great length forbids its entire reproduction here, and 
only a few extracts can be given. 

It commenced as follows : 

To the People of the United States — 

"In the administration of the Territorial Government of Wiskonsin the Executive of the 
United States has not consulted or regarded the feelings, interests or wishes of the people. 
Being entitled to no vote in the election of President, they are compelled to appeal to the 
citizens of the states. That appeal as their delegate and representative I now make. 

'•He has refused to cause harbors and light houses to be constructed on the shore of 
Lilke Michigan, for the protection of commerce and of the lives and property of our 
citizens. 

"He has taken the sum of $34,000, which was appropriated specifically for the erection 
of light houses, and applied it towards the construe ion of the Sub-Treasury Building 
in Washington. 

"He has suddenly abandoned the system of internal improvement within the Territory, 
leaving the roads, which have been commenced, in an unfinished state, and the navigation 
of the rivers, which are the great thoroughfares thioughout the countiy, unimproved. 

"He has thus and by other measures prevented the sale and settlement of the public 
lands within the Territory, by which he has diminished the revenues of the government 
and deprived Wiskonsin of an accession to her population, which would have entitled her 
to admission into the Union. 

"He has endangered the peace of the frontier by compelling by a military force the Win- 
nebago Indians to remove from the country, and before the Government had fulfilled on 
its own part, the stipulations of the treaties with that tribe. 

"He has appointed men to the offices of the Territory who were not citizens of the Terri- 
tory and who were unqualified and incompetent, and has refused to remove them after 
their unfitness was proved." 

The remainder of this long campaign document is taken 
up with specific allegations of neglect, disregard and 
abuse of the interests of the Territory in the appointment 
of, and the neglect or refusal to remove the Governor, 
Judges, District Attorney, Surveyor General and Kegister 
of the Land Office at Mineral Point ; and with a long array 
of reasons, why these officers ought not to have been ap- 
pointed, or why, having been appointed, they ought to 
have been removed. 

It closes as follows : — 

" These facts, which were duly laid before the President, are now submitted to you, 
that you may determine whether he faithfully performed his duty. 

"For this neglect and disregard of the interests of the Territory and of the General 
Government, and for these gross acts of mal-administration, the Executive alone is respon- 
s ble. Disfranchised a^ we are, we cannot forget that we are still American freemen. 
When our petitions have been spurned by the rulers you hive set over us, because we have 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 323 

no voice in the party politics of tlie countiT — when those riders have filled those offices 
with pulitical mendicants from other states, having no knowledge of or interests in com- 
mon with us, it is our right to address ourselves to you, the only source of power, and ask 
a redress of grievance. 

"New York, September 7, 1840. J. D. DOTY." 

In states remote from Wisconsin this "Voice of an In- 
jured Territory," was well calculated to augment the oppo- 
sition to Mr. Van Buren, which had already attained a 
magnitude which indicated the defeat which in less than 
two months proved disastrously overwhelming. 

But in Wisconsin the absurdity of charging upon the ex- 
ecutive, responsibility for the non-construction of harbors 
and light-houses, and of abandoning a system of internal 
improvements, and thus (and by other measures not stated) 
depriving " Wiskonsin of an accession to her population," 
when it was well-known that the responsibility rested with 
Congress alone, was fully met and exposed. 

There too, it was well-known that the removal of tlie 
Winnebago Indians, so far from endangering "■ the peace of 
the frontier " was the most effective means of securing it. 

The covert attack upon the Governor, Judges, Attorney, 
Surveyor-General and Register of the Land Office, under 
the pretense of assailing the President of the United States, 
produced no damaging effect upon those officers in the 
Territory where they were well-known. The Governor was 
the next year elected delegate. Again appointed Governor 
in 1845 — elected the first United States Senator and subse- 
quently re-elected. The Surveyor-General (Geo. W. Jones) 
was for a long time United States Senator from Iowa, and 
represented the United States, as its Minister, at a foreign 
court. The Judges and Attorney often received marked 
and convincing evidence of the confidence which the people 
reposed in them, and there is no doubt if the voters of Wis- 
consin could then have voted for President, that the vote of 
Mr. Van Bueen would have been increased rather than di- 
minished by these charges of the delegate. 



524 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 

So lon^ as its political dependence upon the United States 
continued, the interest of the inhabitants of the Territory in 
the proceedings of Congress was unabated. 

The second session of the 2Gth Congress, commencing on 
the 7th of December, 1840, and ending on the 3d of March, 
1841, was barren of any results of interest to the Territory, 
with the exception of the ordinary appropriations for the 
salaries of the Governor, judges and secretary, and for the 
expenses of the Legislative Assembly. 

The appropriations for salaries ($9,100) and contingent ex- 
penses ($350) were the same as in former years, while the 
appropriation for the pay and mileage of members and other 
expenses of the Legislative Assembly, was reduced from 
the sum $34,075, appropriated at the previous session, to the 
Linprecedentedly small sum of $20,000. 

This reduction was made in the face of the fact that the 
Legislative Assembly had, during this same session of Con- 
gress, been compelled to anticipate the appropriation by 
a resort to certificates of indebtedness, in payment of its 
expenses. 

No appropriations were made for any of the numerous 
harbors on the lake shore, for territorial roads, or internal 
improvements of any description nor for any of the numer- 
ous objects for which they were so greatly needed. 

Judge Doty was the Territorial Delegate during this 
session. 

The first session of the third Legislative Assembly con- 
vened at Madison on the 7th day of December, 1840. 

The members of the Council elected in 1838 to the second 
Legislative Assembly were, under the provisions of the or- 
ganic act, elected for four years, and continued, with two 
exceptions, to hold their offices during the terms of both the 
second and third Assemblies. 

The exceptions were William A. Prentiss and Daniel 
Wells, Jr., from the district of Milwaukee and Washington 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN" IN 1841. 325 

who had resigned, in place of whom Jonathan E. Arnold 
and Don A. J. Upham were elected. 

In the House of Representatives, however, there was al- 
most an entire change in the personnel of its members, 
elected under the new apportionment made at the previous 
August session, but three of the members of the previous 
House having been elected to this. These were, Messrs. 
Dewey of Grant, Ray of Milwaukee, and Whiton of Rock. 

The new House of Representatives consisted of the follow- 
ing members : 

Brown, Fond dii Lac, Manitoivoc, Portage, and Sheboy- 
gan— Wil.j^iam H. Bruce (whose seat was successfully con- 
tested by Albert G.Ellis), Mason C. Darling, and David 

GiDDINGS. 

Crawford and St. Croix — Joseph R. Brown and Alfred 
Brunson. 

Dane, Dodge, Green, Jefferson, and /Saw/j — Lucius I. Bar- 
ber and James Sutherland. 

Grant — Daniel R. Burt, Nelson Dewey, and Neeley 
Gray. 

Iowa — Francis J. Dunn (who resigned on the last day but 
one of the session), Ephraim F. Ogden, David Newland, 
and Daniel M. Parkinson. 

j\Iiltcaifliee and Washington — Joseph Bond, Jacob 
Brazelton, Adam E. Ray, John S. Rockwell, and Will- 
iam F. Shephard. 

jKacme — George Batchelder, Reuben H. Deming, and 
Thomas E. Parmelee. 

Boclx: and Walworth ; John Hackett, Hugh Long, Jesse 
C. Mills and Edward Y. Whiton. 

In the Council, Hon. J a:\ies Maxwell of Walworth 
county was elected President on the third ballot, and 
George Beatty of Iowa county, was unanimously re-elected 
Secretary. 

In the House of Representatives, Hon. David Newland 
of Iowa county was on the first ballot elected Speaker and 
John Catlin of Dane county was unanimously re-elected 
Clerk. 

On the second day of the session Governor Dodge deliv- 
•ered his annual message to the two houses jointly assem- 
bled in the Representatives' hall. 

The Governor renewed the recomm.endation of his mes- 



326 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

sage of 1838, of memorializing Congress to amend the or- 
ganic law so that the members of the Council be elected 
every second year, and members of the House annually, and 
also recommended that Congress be asked so to amend the 
organic law as to permit the qualified electors in each 
county, to elect all their county officers, civil and military, 
which, as provided by that law, were appointable by the 
Governor. 

The attention of the Legislative Assembly was again 
called to the dangers threatened by the course pursued in 
the management of its affairs by the Bank of Mineral Point, 
especially in its issue of what were denominated j90s^-?io^e5, 
payable at a future day. 

He said : 

"This is a violation of all judicious banking; it is certainly a dangerous power to be ex- 
ercised by any banking institution. The time of redeeming her notes might be extended 
to twelve or eighteen months as well as for three or four months. If a bank is permitted 
to leave her legitimate business and enter the field of speculation by dealing in the staple- 
commodity of the country, her capital will always enable her to prostrate individual enter- 
prise, to the great injury of the people. Banks are created for the benefit of the people 
and should be confined to the legitimate purposes for which they were chartered." 

The Governor recommended the enactment of so much of 
the New York Safety Fund law as provided for the appoint- 
ment of bank-commissioners, with the power of examination 
and the other powers conferred by that law, the charter of 
the bank containing a provision that it should be subject so 
far to be amended as to make it conform to such a safety 
fund system. 

The opinion was expressed that corporations of a private 
nature ought not to be increased. 

It was recommended that Congress be asked to extend tha 
right of pre-emption to the settlers on the even-num- 
bered sections of land reserved by Congress in the act 
making appropriations for the Milwaukee and Rock River 
canal. 

Also to grant the miners pre-emption rights to their min- 
eral lots, where they were held by discovery or purchase, 
under permission of the Superintendent of the United States 
lead mines, as well as to extend the right of pre-emption to 
actual settlers who are located on reservations made by the- 
superintendent for smelting purposes, and also to settlers 
on lands located for the half-breed Winnebagoes under the 
treaty of 1829. 

The message stated that in conformity with a resolution 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 82 



0/C< 



of the Legislative Assembly the Governor had appointed 
three commissioners to make location of the University 
lands. That the commissioner for the Green Bay district 
had selected from that district 10,248 acreS;, which had been 
approved by the Treasury Department and reserved from 
sale. That no reports had been received from the other two 
commissioners appointed in the Milwaukee and Wisconsin 
districts. 

The appointment of a Territorial geologist was recom- 
mended. 

The justice and propriety of asking Congress for appro- 
priations for the improvement of the navigation of Rock 
River and of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and uniting the 
waters of those rivers by a short canal at the Portage, as 
well as for the improvement of the Pecatonica and Platte 
rivers, was repeated in this message. 

Memorials asking appropriations from Congress for the 
construction of harbors on the shores of Lake Michigan, 
although they had been annually forwarded since the organi- 
zation of the Territorial government, were again recom- 
mended. 

The message stated that the Indians on our extended 
frontier appeared peaceably disposed. That the Winne- 
bagoes were removed to the west bank of the Mississippi in 
the preceding June, but that a great unwillingness to occupy 
their country, generally called the neutral country, was dis- 
covered; that they appeared to entertain a dread from at- 
tacks of the Sac and Fox Indians, and it would require a 
strong, mounted force to keep them from returning to the 
country east of the Mississippi and north of the Wisconsin 
Rivers. 

The report of the Adjutant General in relation to the 
state of the militia was referred to in the message as were 
some other minor subjects. 

One of the most interesting questions which occupied the 
attention of the Legislative Assembly at this session arose 
in the contested election case of Albert G. Ellis against 
William H. Bruce. It was the question wdiether the Broth- 
ertown Indians were so far citizens of the United States as 
to be entitled to the right of suffrage. 

The certificate of election had been given in due form to 
Mr. Bruce, upon which he was sworn in with other mem- 
bers and took his seat. 



328 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

On the third day of the session the petition and remon- 
strance of Albert G. Ellis was presented contesting- the 
seat of Mr. Bruce. On the next day an affidavit of Mr. 
Bruce concerning his right to a seat was presented. The 
petition and remonstrance of Mr. Ellis and affidavit of Mr. 
Bruce were then referred to a select committee of five 
members (afterwards increased to seven) with powers to 
send for persons and papers, and instructions to report to 
the House as soon as practicable the facts in the case. 

Horatio N. Wells, Attorney General of the Territory, 
was retaine4 as counsel for Mr. Bruce, and Moses M. 
Strong, United States District Attorney, as counsel for 
Mr. Ellis. 

The following resolution was reported by the committee 
and adopted. 

Resolved, That Horatio N. Wells and Moses M. Strong be appointed commissioners 
to take testimony relative to the contested election between Albert G. Ellis and 
William H. Bruce, and that they each be authorized to administer oaths and compel the 
attendance of witnesses, and that the said Wells and Strong shall each be allowed such 
per diem compensation and mileage as is allowed to the members of this House, and such 
sum for their necessary expense? as the Legislative Assembly may allow. 

The commissioners immediately entered upon the work 
imposed upon them by this resolution. They visited the 
counties of Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Brown, Calumet, Fond 
du Lac and Portage and took testimony in each of these 
counties. They were absent on this business from the IGth 
December until the 0th of January, and on the 11th of Jan- 
uary submitted to the House the testimony taken by them, 
consisting of over seventy depositions and copies of election 
returns, which was referred to the select committee. 

On the 2Gth of January the committee made its report, 
from which it appeared that by the official canvass there 
w^ere three more votes canvassed for Mr. Bruce than for 
Mr. Ellis. 

That there were illegal votes cast in several precints, of 
which seventeen w^ere cast for Mr. Bruce and thirteen for 
Mr. Ellis, deducting which, left a majority of one in favor 
of Mr. Ellis, independent of the votes cast in the Pinery 
(Portage county), and by the Brothertown Indians. 

In the Pinery three votes were given to Mr. Ellis and 
seventeen to Mr. Bruce, all of which, it was claimed by Mr. 
Ellis, should be rejected. At Manchester thirty-four votes 
were given for Mr. Ellis by Brothertown Indians, which ii, 
was claimed by Mr. Bruce should ho re jectecl. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 329 

In regard to the Pinery precint, in Portage county, the 
committee reported that the election was held at a place not 
authorized by law, where the polls were opened after twelve 
o'clock (noon), that it did not appear that either the judges 
■or clerks were sworn ; that one of the judges did not possess 
the qualifications of a voter in Portage county, and that it 
did not appear that any poll books were ever made or re- 
turned. 

In regard to the Broth ertown Indians, the committee re- 
ported : 

"It appears from an net of Congress (passed Mai-ch 3, 18:59), that the Brothertowii 
IiKliaiis, upon certain conditions set forth in the act, were made citizens of the United 
States." 

The committee expressed no opinions of the legality of 
these votes, but reported as a fact that the Brothertown 
Indians had long since adopted and did then pursue the 
habits of civilized life. 

The report of the committee was taken up on the 27th of 
January, when by a vote of the House, both parties were to 
be heard by counsel, and the counsel of the party in relation 
to whom the pending question affirmed a favorable proposi- 
tion, was to have the opening and close. 

The first question considered by the House and argued by 
counsel related to the votes in the Pinery precinct. It was 
discussed a, large part of two days and on the 28th a res- 
olution was adopted, by a vote of twenty-three to two, 
that those votes, for the reasons stated by the conmiittee 
were 

"Not an expression of the wishes of the l.'fcal voters of that precinct and therefore 
ought not to be received or aUowed." 

Mr. BRU(.'E,tlie contestee, was excused from voting and all 
the other members except Messrs. Brunson and Giddings 
voted in favor of the resolution. 

The important question remained of the right of the Broth- 
ertown Indians to vote. This question was presented by 
the following resolution: 

" Kesolvrd, That the votes of l}ie Brothertown Indians given at Manchester precinct 
■ought to be received and allowed, excepting those which have been rejected by the com- 
mittee." 

This resolution was debated at great length by counsel 
and by members, and on the second day of the debate (29th) 
a vote Avas reached when the resolution was adopted b}'" a 
vote of fourteen to ten. 



330 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, 

Ayes: Messrs. Batchelder, Brazelton, Darling, Dem- 
ING, Dunn, Hackett, Long, Ogden, Parkinson, Parmelee, 
Ray, Rockwell, Shepard, and Newland, speaker. 

Noes: Barber, Bond, Brown, Brunson, Burt, Dewey, 
GiDDiNGS, Gray, Mills and Whiton. 

On the same day a resolution was adopted that William 
H. Bruce was not entitled to a seat in the House, and on 
the 30th that Albert G. Ellis was, and he was then sworn 
in and occupied the seat during the remaining nineteen days 
of the session. 

Pending this serious contest an episode of a less serious 
natiire occurred in the presentation of a petition on the 2oth 
of January of Ebenezer Childs claiming the seat occupied 
by Mason C. Darling. The petition and a counter state- 
ment of Dr. Darling were referred to a select committee. 

On the 2nd of February Mr. Childs withdrew his petition 
which ended the farce, except that a resolution introduced 
on the last day but one of the session, that he was entitled 
to his per diem and mileage was rejected by a vote of five 
to seventeen. 

Another contest of a serious nature was developed at a 
late period of the session. 

On the Gth of February the memorial of Theophalus La 
Chappelle, contesting the seat of Alfred Brunson, was 
presented, praying the appointment of a commissioner to 
take testimony and report at the next session of the Legis- 
lature. It was referred to the committee on elections, as 
was a statement in reply made by Mr. Brunson. 

The committee subsequently, on the 13th February, re- 
ported a resolution that Hon. Joseph R. Brown, a member 
from the same district, be authorized as commissioner to 
take testimony in the county of St. Croix, in the case, to 
send for persons and papers, administer oaths, and report at 
the commencement of the next session, and that the parties 
be authorized to take testimony in Crawford county, as pro- 
vided by law for taking depositions in civil cases. 

The resolution was adopted, and thus ended for the session 
the contest of La'Chappelle vs. Brunson. 

The Capitol remained in about the same unfinished condi- 
tion at the commencement of this session of the Legislative 
Assembly as that in which it had been left at the close of 
the preceding session. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. ;j:U 

No provision had been made for means to pay for any im- 
provements on the public buildings except the collection of 
money from the old commissioners and treasurer by means 
of the suits which had been commenced, and the opinion 
was expressed by the commissioner in his report to the Leg- 
islative Assembly in January, 1841, that it would — 

" Require great exertion and much time to recover the money belonginf? to th(! Territory, 
so as to apply the funds to the purposes for which they were originally designed." 

The same unfinished rooms which had been occupied by 
the Council and House of Representatives at the previous 
session, although uncomfortable and but poorly adapted to 
the use of the two branches of the Legislative Assembly, 
were made to supply the place of better. There was, how- 
ever, much dissatisfaction felt and expressed by several 
members, and a disposition existed in some quarters to 
change the location of the seat of government. This feel- 
ing exhibited itself in a most marked manner in Jefferson 
county. Propositions were made b}^ the citizens of Jeffer- 
son, Watertown and Aztlan to remove the seat of govern- 
ment from Madison to their several localities. 

These propositions were referred to committees, but none 
met with any favor, excepc that a minority of one commit- 
tee reported a bill to remove the seat of government to Azt- 
lan, which, however, never progressed beyond a second 
reading. 

The committee on Territorial affairs of the Council, sub- 
mitted a report upon the subject in which they say: 

"It does not appear that a removal of the seat of government is petitioned for or even de- 
sired by any considerable portion of the people of the Territory, and no measures ought 
to be adopted by the Legislature afCecting the removal of it, without satisfactory proof 
that a majority of the people are in favor of the measure. No objections have been urged 
against the present site and no reasons exist in the mind of your committee in favor of a 
removal, except the present unfluished state of the Capitol, and the want of good accommo- 
dations at this pla.-e. The present Capitol can be finished easier and sooner than one could 
be built in any other part of the Territory, and it is highly probable that no other site 
would bo selected that woul 1 alTord bett^jr accommodations than are now to be found at 
Madison. ******* jt appears from the report of the commissioner of public 
buildings, as well as from an inspection of the building, tliat it is in a vi'ry unsafe and di- 
lapidated condition, and that unless it is soon completed or repaired, the expenditure 
already laid out upon the Capitol will be wholly lost" 

In the house the committee on Territorial affairs reported 
that by an examination of the building in its present con- 
dition, and comparing it with the original designs and 
draughts, they have estimated the probable cost of its com- 
pletion at $6,758.86. 



332 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A bill was introduced into the House, which after some 
amendments was passed by a vote of 17 to 7, which provided 
that the Treasurer of the Territory be authorized to issue 
Territorial bonds of $100 each to the amount of $7,000, pay- 
able in two years with interest at seven per centum; that 
the Treasurer, after public notice, should cause the bonds to 
be sold at not less than par for specie or its equivalent; that 
when one half of the bonds should be sold the commissioner 
of public buildings should immediately let the contract for 
the completion of the Capitol to the lowest and best bidder, 
upon the original plan and specifications in the contract 
with Morrison, to be finished on or before the next meeting 
of the Legislature. It provided that the contractor should 
be paid on monthly estimates one half in money and one 
half in bonds, if not previously sold, and that the money to 
be collected from the old board of commissioners or Treas- 
urer should be applied to the extinguishment of the bonds, 
and if the same should be insufficient or not received when 
the bonds should become due, such further provision for the 
redemption thereof should be made as might be deemed ex- 
pedient. 

In the Council the bill was concurred in by a vote of 7 
to 5, — Mr. Janes of Racine not voting — with two very mate- 
rial amendments. 

The first amendment provided, in three sections, that the 
commissioner of public buildings should first give Morrison, 
the original coi\tractor, the privilege at any time before the 
25th day of March next of renewing his bonds for the com- 
pletion of the public buildings, according to his original con- 
tract, and if he did so the commissioner was authorized to 
fulfill the contract on the part of the Territory, and give the 
contractor until the first day of November to complete the 
buildings, and to pay the contractor by orders on Mr. Doty, 
the late treasurer of the board of commissioners, who was 
authorized and required to pay the same in the manner pro- 
vided for in the act creating said office of treasurer. This 
amendment further provided that in case of refusal or 
neglect on the part of Morrison to renew his said bonds, 
then the Territorial bonds might be issued, as provided in 
the House bill. 

The second amendment provided that in case the provis- 
ions of the act should not be carried into effect, and it should 
appear to the satisfaction of the Governor that the Capitol 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 333 

would not be completed agreeably to its provisions, the 
Governor was authorized to issue his proclamation, thirty 
days at least, previous to the next annual session, conven- 
ing the Legislative Assembly at Milwaukee, Provided, suit- 
able rooms are furnished in the said town of Milwaukee for 
the accommodation of the two branches of the Legislative 
Assembly when holding their sessions, and for committee 
rooms; also, an office for the executive, and offices for the 
accommodation of the several Territorial officers, free from 
any charge or expense to the Territory or general govern- 
ment. 

These amendments were not adopted by tlie Council, es- 
pecially the first, without the most serious opposition. It 
was said in support of this amendment that if it was em- 
bodied in the law Morrison would resume his contract, give 
new bonds, and that Doty would pay him and the Capitol 
would be finished without incurring any debt. On the other 
hand it was said that to pass the law with this amendment 
was to undo all that had been done at the previous session. 
The Legislature upon a strict examination had come to the 
conclusion that the public money, which was fully ample to 
build the Capitol, had been squandered for objects foreign 
from what was intended, and they turned out the old board 
of commissioners, and suits had been brought against the 
old commissioners and contractor. 

One member (Mr. Collins of Iowa county) said 

"Are we now to say that all tliis hats been wronj; and pi-ovide for the wit lidrawal of the 
suits. He thouprlit it the bounden duty of the Territory to proeepd with the suits. It may 
be the fact tliat this is the only way in wliich we can ^et the money, but lie would rather it 
would be lost than that the Territory should thus comiiromise its dignity and lionor and the 
Legish^turedes(•^•nd to surli cliild's ))lay. He would rather see the capitol luinied to tlie 
gromid than to f^ive the eonipU-tion of tlie work into the hands of the okl eoniniissioners 
or the contract a^ain to James Morrison.'" 

The first amendment was, however, adopted by a vote of 
nine to four — Messrs. Collins, IMartin, Kountree and 
Vineyard voting against it — and the second without a 
division, and so the bill passed the Council. 

The House at first disagreed to all the amendments and 
the Council insisted upon them and again returned the bill 
to the House, when on motion of Mr. Whiton the House 
receded from its disagreement to the second amendment 
and insisted upon its disagreement to the first amendment 
and for the third time returned the bill to the Council. 



334 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A committee of conference was then appointed upon the 
disagreement to the first amendment, consisting of Messrs. 
Martin and Learned of the Council and Messrs. Burt and 
Hackett of the House. 

This committee reported that the cost of completing the 
Oapitol under the Morrison contract would be $14,000, and 
that it need not exceed $9,000, if given out according to the 
plan proposed in the House bill, and that if the amendment 
should be adopted the Territory must lose at least $50,00, 
which would otherwise be saved, and recommended that 
the Council do recede from its first amendment. 

The report of the committee was adopted and the Council 
receded without a division and thus the bill became a law 
with the second but without the first amendment. 

The act was approved on the 19th of February, and on the 
25th the Treasurer gave notice that the bonds would be for 
sale at his office on the 25th of March. On the 26th of March 
one half of them were sold at par. 

The commissioners immediately gave notice that propos- 
als would be received until the 26th of April, for completing 
the Capitol, according to the published specifications. The 
proposal of Daniel Baxter for $7,000 was accepted and a 
contract made with him to complete the Capitol according 
to the specifications by the 1st day of December. The work 
was not fully completed according to the contract, but was 
so far completed that the Governor did not feel warranted 
in issuhig a proclamation for the meeting of the Legislative 
Assembly at Milwaukee which under the law he was in his 
discretion authorized to do. 

N. C. Prentiss was re-elected Commissioner of Public 
Buildings. 

Every obstacle which the defendants could interpose to 
prevent a speedy trial of the Territorial suits was resorted 
to. The suits were pending in Iowa county, where a trial 
was expected at the April term and was urged by the attor- 
neys for the Territory, but the defendants obtained a con- 
tinuance until the September term, for the reason that one 
of the defendants (Doty) who was delegate in Congress, 
had not returned from Washington, although Congress had 
adjourned on the 4:th March. 

At the September term the venue was changed to "Wal- 
worth county, on the alleged ground of the prejudice of the 
inhabitants of Iowa county. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 335 

The court met at Elkhorn, in Walworth county, on the 
fourth Monday of October, where, after some preliminary 
questions had been decided in favor of the Territory, the suits 
were, on the application of the defendants, again continued 
for the alleged reason that the record sent from Iowa 
county was imperfect, in that it did not contain a certain 
bill of exceptions which the defendants said was taken by 
them to the decision of the judge, and signed by him. It 
afterwards was ascertained that no such bill had been 
signed by the judge, which statement was made by one of 
the attorneys for the Territory, in opposing the application 
for a continuance. 

The question of the formation of a State Government 
was not agitated at this session of the Legislative Assembly. 

A memorial to Congress relative to the southern bound- 
ary of the Territory was introduced by Mr. Brunson, which, 
on motion of Mr. Ellis, was laid on the table by a vote of 16 
to 9, and was not again brought up during the session. 

A resolution relative to the northeastern boundary was 
adopted by both houses, which authorized the Governor to 
open a correspondence with the Governor of the State of 
Michigan, to ascertain, if possible, the terms on which that 
part of the State of Michigan south of Lake Superior and 
west of Green Bay and Lake Michigan, might be restored 
to the jurisdiction of the Territory of Wisconsin. 

By the act of Congress providing for the admission of 
Michigan into the Union, approved June 15, 183G, the bound- 
ary line, after reaching the mouth of the Montreal River, 
was thus described : 

" Thence through the middle of the main channel of the said Montreal River, to the 
middle of the Lake of the Desert ; thence in a direct line to the nearest head-waters of 
the Menomonee River ; thence through the middle of that fork of the said river first 
touched by the said line, to the main channel of the said Menomonee River ; thence down 
the center of the main channel of the same, to the center of the most usual ship chan- 
nel of the Green Bay of Lake Michigan, etc." 

The Surveyor-General was authorized and required by an 
act approved June 12, 1838, to cause this boundary line to 
be " surveyed, marked and designated," and the sum of 
$3,000 was appropriated for that purpose. 

This was not done and the same sum was re-appropriatod 
to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of AVar, 



336 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

by the second section of the act making appropriations for 
the support of the army, approved July 20, 1840. 

The appropriation was inadequate to the work, and by 
the third section of the army appropriation act, approved 
March 8, 1841, there was 

"Appropriated S6,C00 to be expended under the direction of the Secretary ofWar, in 
t\ie survey and examination of the cotoifj-j/ situated between the mouths of the Menom- 
onee and Montreal rivers, who is hereby directed tocause to be made a plat or p'an of such 
survey and e.\aminatioii, which shall be returned to Congress with all convenient dispatch." 

The time was so short after the appropriation of July, 
1 840, and the appropriation so small, that but little was done 
that year. A reconnoisance of the wild country between 
the Montreal and Menomonee rivers was made by Capt. T. J. 
Cram of U. S. Top. Eng., who submitted a report, December, 
1840, 'to be found in Senate Ex. Docs., No. 151, 26th Congress, 
2d Session, in which he says : 

" It ^vas ascertained thit Lac Vieux Desert or ' Lake of the Desert,' has no connection 
whatever with the Montreal river ; and that the nearest distance between said lake and 
this river is such, that an Indian requires eight days, without a pack, to pas-; from one to 
the other ; and it is also believed with much confidence, that the Montreal river does not 
head in a lake, but takes its rise in an extensive swamp. Neither is Lac Vieux Desert, 
or Lake of the Desert, at all connected with the Menomonee river ; but this lake was found, 
contrary to the opinions of all except the Indians, to be the principal head of the Wisconsin 
river." 

Capt. Cram in this report further says : 

" It wou'd be exceedingly difficult, yea, utterlj' impossible, to run the boundary in com 
plete acLM.rdance with the present reading of the de cript;on in the act of Congress ; 
paifculiriy on that part of the ground between the Montreal river and the head of t lie 
IMenonionee (the Brule river), which comes nearest to ' Lake of the Desert.' " 

He suggested modifications in the description of the 
boundary to the following effect : 

" To the mouth of the .Montreal River (of Lake Superior) thence (in ascending) through 
the centre of the extreme right hand channel, that the said Montreal River may be found 
to have, so far up the same as where the said channel shall be found to be intersected by a 
direct line drawn from the highest point of ground on Middle Island of Lac Vieux Desert 
north — " west ; thence (from the said intersection) alon^; the just described direct line, to the 
said point of Middle Island; thence in a direct line to the centra of the channel of the 
outlet of Brule River; thence following the center of the extreme left hand channel of 
Brule River down to the middle of the channel of the Menomonee River." 

This suggestion was subsequently so far adopted by Con- 
gress in the " enabling act " of August 6, 184G, as to remove 
the practical physical difficulty of delineating the bound- 
ary line. That a?t prescribed that the boundary, after run- 
ning through Lake Michigan to the Menomonee River, 
should run 



TEERITOEY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 337 

" Up the channel of that river to the Bruld River; thence up said last mentioned river to 
Lake Brule ; thence along the southern shore of Lake Brul6 in a direct line to the center of 
the channel between Middle and South islands in the Lake of the Desert; thence in a 
direct line to the head waters of the Montreal River, as marked upon the survey made by 
Capt. Cram." 

In the summer of 1841 another reconnoisance, with many 
astronomical observations and instrumental surveys, was 
made by Capt. Ckam, whose report can be found in Senate 
Ex. Documents, ISTo. 170, 27th Congress, 2nd session. 

This reconnoisance and survey embraced the whole dis- 
tance from the mouth of the Menomonee River at Green 
Bay to the mouth of the Montreal River at Lake Superior. 

The report says — 

"The length of the surveyed line from the head of the Montreal to eastern extremity of 
Trout Lake is 43 miles 3,188 feet." 
"The length of the line from Trout Lake to Lac Vieux Desert is 35 miles 2,987 feet." 

The sum of these two lines is 79 miles 795 feet, but this 
distance is not on a straight line. 
The report further says — 

"The length of the surveyed line from Lac Vieux Desert to Lac BrulS is 15 miles 143 
feet." 

"The whole length of the survey from the head of the Montreal to the head of the BruliS 
therefore becomes 100 miles 2,199 feet. 

Speaking of Lake Vieux Desert, Captain Cram in his first 
report says — 

"The country in the vicinity of this beautiful lake is called in Chippewa language Ka-ta- 
kit-te-kon, and the lake bears the same name. On South Island there is an old potato 
planting ground, hence the appellation of Vieux Desert, which in mongrel French means 
old planting ground. There is certainly more reason for calling it "Lac Vieux Desert" than 
for the appellation "Lake of the Desert." 

In the House of Representatives so much of the Governor's 
message as relates to the Bank of Mineral Point was re- 
ferred to the committee on corporations, of which Hon. 
E. V. Whiton was chairman. 

At an early period of the session Mr. Whiton reported 
from the committee a bill to establish the New York safety 
fund system. 

T'le principal object which it was expected the passage of 
the bill would accomplish was the election of a bank com- 
missioner, with power at all times to examine the affairs of 
the bank, and to cause it to be wound up whenever the i):ib- 
lic welfare demanded it. 

The passage of the bill was vigorously opposed by those 
interested in the bank, with all the influence they co'ild 
23 



338 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

bring to bear upon it, and the cashier had the assurance to 
send a communication to the House, asking to be heard be- 
fore it by counsel. 

On motion of Mr. Whiton it was resolved that the bill be 
referred to the committee on the judiciary, and that the 
stockholders be allowed to appear before that committee by 
counsel, and be heard relative to the bill. 

After this the bill was before the House for more than a 
month, and on the 13th of February it passed that body by 
a vote of 16 to 10. 

In the Council several amendments were adopted to the 
bill, which its friends in the House regarded as defeating 
its beneficial objects and proposed amendments to the Coun- 
cil amendments calculated to prevent such an effect. The 
Council refused to concur and the House refused to recede, 
and the disagreement resulted in the defeat of the bill. 

After the defeat of the bill, Mr. Collins, of Iowa county, 
who had reported the amendment adopted by the Council, 
on the last day of the session, introduced on leave a resolu- 
tion that the President of the Council appoint a committee 
of three members, to make a thorough examination of the 
state and condition of the Bank of Mineral Point, and to 
cause the result of their examinations to be published in a 
newspaper at the seat of government and to make a report 
to the Council at its next session. 

The resolution was adopted and Messrs. Arnold, Learned 
and Martin appointed the committee. 

In about a month the committee caused their report to be 
published which bore date March 23, 1841. 

The report was of course based upon information derived 
from the officers of the bank and showed that the imme- 
diate liabilities of the bank (not including stock) were $250,- 
295.34, and the available resources were $346,132.95, in 
addition to which the bank had "paper which is not consid- 
ered immediately available, but which may be deemed ulti- 
mately good," amounting to $86,877.69 and that the remaining 
property consisting mainly of real estate amounted to 
$17,723.46, making a sum total of assets $350,734.10. 

That it further appeared from the statement of the cashier 
that $100,000 of the capital stock was paid in, which if added 
to the liabilities would increase them to $350,295.34. 

The report stated that of the immediate liabilities $208,- 
S20, consisted of its outstanding bank note circulation. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 'Sno 

which was an increase of $118,515, since the 25th of Septem- 
ber 1840, when an examining committee of the Council re- 
ported the circulation to be $90,305, 

The remaining habilities consisted of drafts on New York 
$27,400, and deposits $14,075.34. 

This examination was made about three w^eeks after a 
pubHslied announcement "to the public" over the signature 
of the cashier, bearing date March 5, 1841, that the bank had 
suspended specie payments and would pay her liabilities by 
drafts on 'St. Louis at sight, payable in Illinois, Kentucky 
or Indiana bank notes. 

In the early part of August, 1841, the affairs of the bank 
were placed in the custody of the law. An injunction was 
issued to restrain the bank from continuing its operations 
and receivers were appointed to take charge of its assets. 
They found the vaults empty. The specie, of which the 
committee reported March 23d, there was $20,507.25 on hand, 
had been clandestinel}^ removed. The cashier, S. B. Knapp, 
his brother, R. C. Knapp, and the teller, Porter Brace, had 
absconded and taken with them the currency and other 
portable assets of the bank. They were pursued by the re- 
ceivers, and the cashier and his brother were overtaken at 
Rockford and made prisoners. They had attempted to con- 
ceal a large amount of bank notes and drafts by sealing 
them up between the fly leaves and covers of some books, 
which they had left with a friend and acquaintance, and 
who delivered them up to the receivers. Upon "breaking 
the seals*' in the presence of several Rockford gentlemen 
they found $1,500 of Illinois Bank notes and over $70,000 in 
certificates of deposit and drafts on Galena, St. Louis, New 
York and Boston, and bills of lading for 12,901 pigs of lead 
(903,070 lbs.). 

The culprits escaped, and many of the parties upon whom 
the drafts were drawn interposed defenses or offsets, so that 
very little was ever realized from them. 

The most mysterious thing about the whole affair was the 
unaccountable disappearance of William H. Banks, Esq., 
one of the receivers. He was a lawyer at Mineral Point of 
high standing; a native of Virginia of unimpeachable 
character in every respect. He went to St. Louis in the dis- 
charge of his duties as receiver, when he mysteriously 
disappeared and was never afterwards seen or heard of, not- 
withstanding the most diligent search and inquiry. The 



3i0 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

mystery can only be solved on the theory of murder or 
suicide. 

Reports were made by the Attorney General and the Re- 
ceiver of the Bank of Wisconsin showing that the suit to 
forfeit the charter of that bank was still pending and that 
the affairs of the bank were in process of liquidation. 

The committee on corporations was instructed, on motion 
of Mr. Whiton, to inquire into the expediency of memorial- 
izing Congress to disapprove of an act of the Legislature of 
the Territory incorporating the Wisconsin Marine and Fire 
Insurance Company. 

Near the close of the session (February 18) Mr. Whiton 
from the committee on corporations, reported that 

" No memorial which the Legislature could adopt would reach Congress in season to re- 
ceive the attention of that body at its present session. Without expressing any opinion as 
to the expediency of the measure, the committee recommend that no action be had relative 
to the subject. " 

An act was passed at this session incorporating two dis- 
tinct fire insurance companies, one called the "Western 
Mutual Fire Insurance Company," located at Prairie du 
Chien and the other the " Howard Mutual Insurance Com- 
pany " located at Green Bay. Neither of these companies, 
however, it is supposed, were ever organized; at least they 
never went into active operation. 

A memorial to Congress was adopted, asking an appro- 
priation for the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, and calling the 
attention of Congress to the irnportance of improving the 
navigation of the Rock and Peckatonica rivers, and also 
stating the importance of the improvement of the Grant 
river, known as the " Grant Slue " and of the Platte river, 
which contained the questionable statement that 

" The Little Platte river is navigable for the largest class of steamboats to within nine 
miles of Platteville." 

Another memorial requested Congress to make an appro- 
priation of money for the construction of harbors on the 
western shore of Lake Michigan. 

An act was passed to incorporate the " Fox and Wiscon- 
sin Steamboat Company." The incorporators were mostly 
citizens of Green Bay. It was a small affair with an author- 
ized capital of only $10,000, and it is not known that any 
thing was ever done by virtue of the charter. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 341 

At this session of the Legislative Assembly two acts were 
passed granting divorces from the bonds of matrimony, and 
annulling the marriage contract. One of these annulled and 
made void the marriage contract between Peter How- 
ard of Iowa county and Sarah Howard his wife, and 
changed the name of Peter Howard to Robert C. Hoard. 
The other, the marriage contract between Josiah Moore of 
the county of Milwaukee and Levisee his wife. 

These acts were passed as expressly exceptional, and in 
the first case the judiciary committee which reported the 
bill, say: 

" The power by law being invested in the courts, for wise reasons that jurisdiction should 
not be disturbed except in extreme and pecuHar cases ; such as where every one may, in 
their own minds, be satisfied that the causes exist, yet the person applying for divorce may 
be unable to establish the fact by legal testimony. Such case would warrant the interfer- 
ence by the Legislature, and such ap]3ears to be the case that your committee have had 
under consideration." 

The select committee to which was referred so much of 
the Governor's message as related to the appointment of a 
Territorial geologist, after referring to the extent, richness 
and value of the mines of lead and copper so long known to 
exist in the Territory, expresses the opinion that the entire 
Territory abounds in the most valuable minerals. That on 
Black River, and near its principal falls, iron ore of a supe- 
rior quality and inexhaustible in quantity had recently been 
discovered, which was nothing short of an iron mountain, 
only two miles above the falls, the base of which was 
washed by the river, on which its products could be con- 
veyed by boats, and — 

" It is believed," the report says, " that this one spot is capable of supplying with iron 
all the States and Territories along the 'Father of Waters' lying above the Des Moines 
Rapids for centuries to come." 

That in the vicinity of Prairie du Chien are found blocks 
for mill-stones, equal in quality to the best importations 
from France, inexhaustible in quantity, while gypsum or 
plaster Paris, used for cementing these blocks, is said to 
be found at Green Bay in abundance. 

The probability of finding bituminous coal is discussed 
and opinions advanced entirely in conflict with geological 
facts, which are now well known. 

The conclusion to which the committee arrived was — 

" That from the want of funds in the Territorial treasury, it is inexpedient at present to 
appoint a Territorial geologist." 



342 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The subject of common schools received special attention 
at this session of the Legislative Assembly, and an act was 
passed condensing and consolidating the previous laws upon 
this subject, and introducing some new features, which were 
calculated to give efficiency to the common school system 
of education. 

The "Prairieville Academy" was incorporated and "The 
Trustees of the Milwaukee Educational Institute." 

Probably the most important act of the session so far as 
it affected local self-government, was the — 

"Act to provide for the government of the several towns in this Territory, and for the 
revision of county government." 

The New England and New York system of local self- 
government is what may be called the ioivn system, while 
that of the western and southern states was what may be 
called the county system. 

The great mass of the inhabitants of the lead mine region 
prior to this period, came from the western and southwestern 
states, and brought with them prejudices in favor of the 
county system, which therefore became the recognized sys- 
tem of municipal government. Their number was greater 
than that of all other parts of the Territory at the time of 
its organization. 

The eastern portion of the Territory daring the first four 
or five years of the Territorial existence rapidl}'" became 
settled with a population largely imbued with the ideas of 
New England and New York, in which they had been edu- 
cated, and a corresponding desire was manifested that the 
system of local government should be changed to conform 
to their ideas. 

This conflict of ideas resulted in the passage of this act, 
approved February 18, 1841. 

It contained a complete system for the organization of 
towns, and specified all the details of town government, 
and provided that the legal voters should at the next general 
election vote for or against the provisions of the act, and if 
a majority of the electors in any county should vote in 
favor of the adoption of the act, the county so voting should 
be governed by and be subject to the provisions of the act, 
on and after the first Tuesday of April, 1843. 

The result was that in some counties the town system was 
adopted, and in others the county system continued to exist. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 343 

The creation of towns by Legislative enactment continued 
and at the same session, that part of the town of Watertown 
comprised in townships number seven and eight in range 
sixteen, was set off into a separate town by the name of 
Union. 

That part of the town of Whitewater comprised in town- 
sliip three, range fifteen was set off into a separate town by 
the name of Richmond. 

The territory included in township five, range seventeen, 
was created into a separate town by the name of Eagle. 

And the name of the town of Kinnikinnick was changed 
to Greenfield. 

The towns of Potosi and Platteville in Grant county and 
Southport and Racine in Racine county, were incorporated 
with all the municipal powers of incorporated villages. 

Commissioners were appointed with authority to lay out 
the following Territorial roads: 

From Marine Mills on the St. Croix River to Grey Cloud 
island on the Mississippi River. 

From the Falls of St. Croix to the Marine Mills. 

From Prcscott's ferry to Grey Cloud island. 

From English Prairie on the Wisconsin River (Muscoda) 
to Whitney's Mills (Wood County). 

From the Fox River of Green Bay, opposite the mouth of 
Plumb Creek, to Smithfield north of the grist-mill in the 
Oneida reservation. 

From the United States road near the house of Seymour 
Wilcox in Fond du Lac county (AVaupun) and to intersect 
the same again near the bridge where the said road crosses 
the Fox River in Portage county, and running on the north 
side of Fox Lake. 

From Fond du Lac to Oshkosh. 

From Fort Winnebago to the Plover Rapids on the Wis- 
consin River. 

From Madison via Columbus, to the house of Seymour 
Wilcox in Fond du Lac county. 

From Fort Howard to Whitney's Mills. 

From Monroe, Green county to Jefiferson, Jefferson 
county. 

From Milwaukee via Watertown to Fond du Lac. 

From state line in section thirty-one, town one, range 
nine east, to Monroe and thence to Mineral Point. 



344 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

From Sheboygan to Manchester. 

From state line in section thirty-one, town one, range 
nine east to Madison. 

From Haneys' Ferry on Wisconsin River to Hickos 'sMills 
in Iowa county, thence to the military road. 

From Haneys' Ferry to the Dalles on Wisconsin River. 

From Madison to Rowins' Rapids on Baraboo River. 

From Racine to Rrairieville. 

From Sauk Prairie to Whitney's Mills. 

From Stockbridge to Sheboygan. 

From Prairieville to northeast corner of section twenty- 
nine, town four, range sixteen, thence to United States road 
in town three, range sixteen. 

From northeast corner of section 29, town four, range six- 
teen to Janesville. 

From Beloit to southwest corner of section sixteen, town 
four, range ten east, thence northerly to intersect road to 
Madison. 

A supplemental act was passed in relation to the militia. 

An act was passed to provide for the support of illegitimate 
children and regulate the mode of proceedings. 

Peddlers were required to obtain license. 

The law in relation to assessing and collecting county rev- 
enue was materially changed. 

The northern boundary of Portage county, as established 
in 1836, was the line between towns fourteen and fifteen, but 
by an act passed at this session all that district of country 
lying north of such boundary and comprised in ranges two, 
three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine east, and extend- 
ing to the northern boundary of the Territory (except frac- 
tional townships fourteen and fifteen, range nine, east), was 
annexed to Portage county, so that Portage county thus 
became forty-eight miles (eight ranges) in width east and 
west and extended north from Dane county to the bound- 
ary line between Michigan and Wisconsin, a distance of 
more than two hundred miles. 

The county was organized for all purposes of county gov- 
ernment, and the county officers were required to hold their 
offices at Wisconsin Portage, and for judicial purposes it 
was attached to the county of Dane. 

The north and south boundary lines of all counties bor- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 345 

dering upon Lake Michigan were extended east to the east- 
ern boundary hneof the Territory (in Lake Michigan) which 
was declared to be the eastern boundary line of such coun- 
ties; and the north and south boundary lines of all counties 
bordering on the Mississippi River was extended west to the 
western boundary line of the Territory, and jurisdiction was 
conferred upon said counties co-extensive with the jurisdic- 
tion of the Territory. 

Samuiol H. Farnsworth was authorized to build a dam 
across the south branch or channel of the Menomonee 
River, in the county of Brown, and William P, Owen was 
authorized to build a dam aci-oss Rock River, on section 19, 
town 8, range IG (town of Ixoiiia). 

The Governor was authorized by joint resolution to 
appoint a competent person in the room of the one hereto- 
fore appointed for the Wisconsin land district, to locate 
10,248 acres of University lands and advertise and make 
return thereof to the Governor. 

A selection of 10,248 53-100 acres had previously been 
made in the Milwaukee land district by Wm. B. Sheldon, 
the agent appointed for that purpose, and advertised 
November 25, 1840. 

The annual expenses of the Legislative Assembly had 
grown to proportions greatly in excess of the appropriations 
made by Congress for their liquidation. To mitigate in 
some measure the embarrassments arising from this con- 
dition of affairs, the Legislative Assembly provided in Feb- 
ruary, 1841, that the Secretary of the Territory, or in his 
absence the Governor, be authorized to issue to the several 
creditors of the Territory, certificates of the amounts due 
them respectively, setting forth the amount due and for 
what purpose, and bearing interest at ten per cent, per 
annum, which certificates should be transferable by indorse- 
ment, and for the redemption of which the faith of the Ter- 
ritory and the several sums appropriated by Congress for 
the payment of the expenses of the Legislative Assembly 
were irrevocably pledged. 

The creditors were to execute duplicate receipts for the 
amount of their claims, which were to be forwarded to the 
proper accounting officers of the Treasury department, and 



• 



346 HISTORY OF THE TERRITOEY OF WISCONSIN. 

the amount received thereupon was to be applied in the re- 
demption of the certificates. 

The President of the United States — William Henry 
Harrison — died at Washington on the 4th of April, 1841, 
one month after his inaugjuration. 

The Vice-President, John Tyler, immediately succeeded 
not only to the honors but to the responsibilities and duties 
of the Presidential office. 

In Wisconsin a very extensive system of removals from, 
and appointments to, office was soon developed. 

Henry Dodge was removed from the office of Governor 
and James D. Doty appointed his successor. 

Francis J. Dunn was removed from the office of Secretary 
of the Territory and Alexander P. Field appointed his 
successor. 

Moses M. Strong was removed from the office of United 
States Attorney, and Thomas W. Sutherland appointed his 
successor. 

George W. Jones was removed from the office of Sur- 
veyor-General of Wisconsin and Iowa, and James Wilson, 
of New Hampshire, appointed his successor. 

Edward James was removed from the office of United 
States Marshal and Daniel Hugunin appointed his suc- 
cessor. 

Pascal Bequette, Keceiver, and John V, Ingersoll, 
Eegister of the Wisconsin land district, were removed and 
Levi Sterling and Josiah D. Weston appointed their re- 
spective successors, and the land office itself was removed 
from Mineral Point to Muscoda. 

L. S. Pease was removed from the office of Receiver of 
Public Moneys in the Green Bay land district and Stoddard 
JuDD appointed his successor. 

A. B. Morton was removed from the office of Register of 
the Land Office at Milwaukee and Paraclete Potter was 
appointed his successor. 

Numerous other changes were made in United States offi- 
cers and the removals of postmasters for political and party 
reasons were innumerable. 

Political proscription was not confined to the United States 
government, but was practiced in a small way in the Terri- 
tory. Necessarily in a small way as the patronage of the 
governor was limited. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 347 

H. N. Wells was removed from tlie office of attorney 
general and M. M. Jackson appointed his successor. Will- 
iam T. Sterling was removed from the office of librarian and 
Almon Lull appointed his successor. 

N. T. Parkinson was removed fromtlie office of sheriff of 
Dane county and A. A. Bird appointed his successor. John 
Catlin was removed from the office of district attorney of 
Dane county and Barlow Shackelford appointed. 

George Messersmith was appointed sheriff of Iowa 
county and Enos S. Baker of Grant county. 

The Wisconsin Enquirer published at Madison announced 
in its issue of June 9th 

" That all difficulties between Ex-Governor Mason and Governor Doty, involving the 
title of this town, have been settled, and that a deed from the former to the latter of the 
whole property has been placed upon record. The settlement of the title will considerably 
enhance the value of property and we may calculate now with some certainty on great 
improvements being made in the town during the present season." 

Previous to 1841, spasmodic efforts had been made to or- 
ganize political parties for the selection and election of 
members of the Legislature and Delegate to Congress. Such 
efforts, however, had never been completely successful. 

The overwhelming success of the Whigs at the presiden- 
tial election in 1840, appeared to have aroused the zeal and 
given strength to the courage of the Whigs of the Territory. 

On the first day of January, the Whigs, in pursuance of 
previous arrangements, assembled at Milwaukee to celebrate 
the 

"Brilliant victory achieved by the hardy yeomanry of our country in the late presiden- 
tial contest." 

This meeting was large, jubilant and enthusiastic and 
many representative men from every part of the Territory 
participated in it. 

Among other proceedings was an agreement upon a com- 
plete and thorough organization of the Whig party of Wis- 
consin. To this end a central committee was appointed. 

The committee issued the following notice: 

WHIG CONVENTION. 

The undersigned, members of the Whig Central Committee in this Territory, in pursu- 
ance of a resolution passed at a meeting of the Whigs, in attendance at the celebration held 
at Milwaukee on Uie first day of January, 1841, hereby give notice that a convention of 
the Whigs of the Territory will be held at Madison, in the county of Dane, on the 4th day of 
February next, to take into consideration the expediency of an efficient organization of the 
Whig party throughout the Territory, and to transact such other business £is may bo 



348 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

thought proper. The Whigs in the several counties are requested to send delegates equal 
to the number of Representatives to which they are entitled in both branches of the Leg- 
islature. A. BRtTNSON, 

William A. PRE^fTISs, 
E. Childs, 
James Collins, 
John H. Rountree, 
Edward V. Whiton, 
Madison, January 9, 1841. Gilbert Knapp. 

On the 4th of February the convention assembled at 
Madison. A committee on credentials reported the names 
of sixty-one persons entitled to seats in the convention. No 
regard was paid by the committee to the apportiontment of 
delegates among the several counties, but they reported 
the delegates in attendance and entitled to seats from the 
several counties, as follows : Crawford and St. Croix, 4 ; 
Dane, 3 ; Jefferson, 3 ; Sauk, 3 ; Brown and the counties 
attached, 9 ; Milwaukee, 10 ; Walworth, 5 ; Rock, 3 ; Iowa, 
13, and Grant, 9. 

It was further resolved : 

" That all Whig citizens of the territory who are present and friendly to the objects of 
the convention be invited to seats within the bar and to participate in the deliberations of 
the convention." 

Under this resolution the names of twenty other persons 
were presented as members of the convention, ijicreasing 
the number to eighty -one. 

A preamble and series of resolutions, reported by a com- 
mittee appointed for that purpose, were adopted ; and a 
plan of organization was also adopted in pursuance of a re- 
port of a committee. 

The plan provided for the appointment of a central com- 
mittee of five, whose duty it should be to call Territorial 
conventions at such time and place as they might think the 
interests of the party require ; in which the representation 
should be limited to double the number to which each elec- 
tion district shall be entitled in the House of Representa- 
tives. The plan also provided for the appointment on the 
nomination of the delegates then present a committee of five 
in each of the election districts, whose duty it should be to 
call conventions in their districts and to correspond with 
the Whigs of the Territory in relation to the general inter- 
ests of the party. 

The committees were all appointed and the convention 
adjourned, and thus the Whig party of the Territory was 
fully organized for any subsequent political contests. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 349 

The Democrats were not slow to accept the gage thrown 
down by the Whigs. 

On the 14th of January a meeting of Democrats was held 
at Madison, which, after appointing a committee to report 
resolutions upon the subject of party organization^ ad- 
journed until tlie next day. 

On the 15th the meeting re-assembled, and recommended 
that a Territorial convention be held at Madison on Thurs- 
day, the 11th of February, to be composed of delegates to 
be chosen from each county, or from each election precinct, 
as may suit the views and convenience of the citizens. 

A central corresponding committee was appointed tem- 
porarily, to continue until a permanent one should be ap- 
pointed by the contemplated convention, and a committee 
of three for each county in the Territory to secure from 
their respective counties full delegations to the proposed 
Democratic Territorial convention. 

The proceedings of the meeting were indorsed by the sig- 
nature of the names of sixty-two of the leading Democratic 
citizens of the Territory. 

The central committee immediately issued a stirring ap- 
peal to their Democratic fellow citizens throughout the Ter- 
ritory to organize and send full delegations to the proposed 
Territorial convention. 

On the 11th of February the Democratic Territorial con- 
vention assembled, consisting of one hundred and thirty- 
four delegates, and five others admitted to seats through 
courtesy. The delegates represented the county of Brown 
and the counties attached, and the counties of Dane, Grant, 
Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Milwaukee, Racine, Rock, Sauk, St. 
Croix, and Walworth, comprising every organized county 
except Crawford (which elected delegates who sent a letter 
stating their inability to attend), and some counties (Sauk 
and St. Croix) which were not organized. 

Hon. Morgan L. Martin was chosen President, with eight 
vice-presidents, and Nelson Dewey and B. H. Edgerton, 
Secretaries. 

Committees on resolutions, to draft an address to the 
people, and to report a plan for organizing the Democratic 
party were appointed. 

The committee on resolutions reported a lengthy platform 
which was adopted; and in accordance with the report of 
the committee on organization a central committee of five 



350 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

was appointed whose duty it was to call Territorial conven- 
tions at the Capitol at such times as they might think the 
interest of the party required, and to designate the number 
of delegates thereto; which should be apportioned to each 
election district according to population. 

The Democrats of the different counties were requested 
to appoint county committees, and to take speedy and effi- 
cient measures for the organization of the Democratic 
party. 

Having thus met the challenge of the Whig party, and 
placed the Democratic party in an attitude of readiness for 
any subsequent political contests, the convention adjourned 
sine die. 

On the 25th of May the Whig central committee issued a 
€all for a convention of Democratic Whig delegates to be 
held at Madison on the first day of July. The representa- 
tion under the call was double the number to which each 
election district was entitled in the House of Representa- 
tives, so that the convention, if fully represented, would 
consist of fifty-two delegates. 

The convention assembled at the time fixed and the elec- 
tion districts were all nearly fully represented. 

John P. Arndt of Green Bay was elected President, and 
Thomas Wright of Racine and C. J. Learned of Prairie du 
Chien were elected Secretaries. 

A series of resolutions was reported and adopted after 
which the convention proceeded to ballot for a candidate 
for delegate. The result was: 

For JoxiTHAN E. Arnold 29 votes. 

For William S. Hamilton 14 votes. 

For James Collins , 7 votes. 

For William A. Prentiss , 1 vote. 

For Blank 1 vote. 

And Jonathan E. Arnold was declared the candidate of 
the Whig party for delegate to Congress. 

A committee of five — Edward V. Whiton, William S. 
Hamilton, Wm. A. Prentiss, David Brigham and Charles 
J. Learned — was appointed to prepare an address to the 
people of the Territory. 

A central committee of three — A. A. Bird, David Brig- 
ham and James Morrison — was appointed and the conven- 
tion adjourned sine die. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1841. 351 

On the 2d of June the Democratic central committee made 
a, call for a Democratic Territorial convention, to be held at 
Madison on the 10th day of July, and designated the num- 
ber of delegates thereto, to which each district should be 
entitled according to population, and was as follows: 
Brown and the counties attached 8, Milwaukee and Wash- 
ington 13, Racine 8, Rock and Walworth 9, Green, Dane, 
Jefferson, Dodge and Sauk 5, Iowa 9, Grant 9, Crawford 
and St, Croix 5; total G6. 

The convention assembled on the lOtliof July with 57 del- 
egates in attendance; the vacancies were from the district 
of Brown, etc., 2, Milwaukee and Washington 1, Grant 2, 
and Crawford and St. Croix 4. 

Horatio N. Wells of Milwaukee was appointed Presi- 
dent of the convention, and John Catlin of Madison and 
C. Latham Sholes of Southport were appointed Secre- 
taries. 

A resolution was adopted that the convention now pro- 
ceed to vote viva voce for a Democratic candidate for dele- 
gate to Congress, that the vote be taken by districts, and 
that each district cast the number of votes to which it is 
entitled. 

The result was that every district cast its entire vote for 
Henry Dodge, being a total of G6 votes. 

The names of the delegates were then severally called 
over and each voted viva voce for Henry Dodge, and the 
President declared that he was unanimously nominated. 

A committee was appointed to inform the nominee, who 
soon reported that he accepted the nomination. 

Governor Dodge was also nominated as the Democratic 
candidate to fill the vacancy in the office in the event that 
any election should be held to fill such vacancy. 

After the adoption of a very long series of resolutions and 
the appointment of a committee to draft an address to the 
citizens of the Territory, the convention adjourned sine die. 

The election was held on the 4th Monday (27th) of Septem- 
ber and resulted in a majority cf 507 in favor of Governor 
Dodge. 



352 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The following is the official canvass : 



Counties. 



Henry 
Dodge. 



J. E. 
Arnold. 



Brown . 



Crawford 

Dane and Sauk . 



Dodge. 



Fond du Lac . 



Grant. 
Green . 



Iowa. 



Jefferson .. 
Manitowoc . 
Milwaukee. 



Eacine . 



Rock 

Sheboygan 

St. Croix 

Walworth 

Washington 

Total 

Majority for Henry Dodge 



195 

76 

73 

10 

13 

502 

135 

547 

120 

27 

656 

483 

203 

13 

17 

340 

26 



3,435 



125 

57 

99 

11 

11 

633 

98 

347 

101 

19 

585 

307 

229 

23 

10 

311 

12 



2,928 



507 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 

The second session of the 27th Congress, which com- 
menced on the sixth day of December, 18-il and terminated 
on the thirty-first day of August, 1842, was looked to by the 
people of Wisconsin with no less interest than were the 
sessions which preceded it. 

The expenditures of the Legislative Assembly at every 
session since the organization of the Territory had been in 
excess of the appropriations by Congress for their payment, 
so that a large arrearage had accumulated which was rep- 
resented by certificates of indebtedness and scrip, which. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 353 

though depreciated, served to a great extent as a substitute 
for currency. 

The act making appropriations for the civil and diplo- 
matic expenses of the government for the year 1842, 
approved May 18, 1842, besides the ordinary annual appro- 
priation of $9,100 for the compensation of the Governor, 
Judges and Secretary and $350 for contingent expenses, con- 
tained an appropriation of $20,000 for the expenses of the 
Legislative Assembly. It also contained appropriations for 
the expenses of Iowa and Florida Territories, as well as this 
proviso : 

" That the Legislative Assembly of no Territory shall hereafter, in any instance or under 
any pretext whatever, exceed the amount appropriated by Congress for its annual 
expenses." 

Another act was subsequently passed at the same session, 
approved August 29th, 

" To provide for the settlement of certain accounts for the support of government in the 
Territory of Wisconsin and for other purposes." 

This enacted, ' ' That the proper accounting ofiflcers of the treasury department be 
directed to audit and settle the accounts for the expenses of the Legislative Assembly of 
the Territory of Wisconsin, including the printing of the laws and other incidental ex- 
penses, which have not heretofore been closed at the treasury department." 

The act contained many restrictions upon the allowances 
to be made by the accounting officers, but the effect was to 
substantially expunge the indebtedness of the Territory. 

It also contained another provision which at the next ses- 
sion of the Legislative Assembly was assigned by the 
Governor as a reason for refusing to have official inter- 
course with it. This provision was in the following words: 

"No session of the Legislature of a Territory shall be held until the appropriation for its 
expenses shall have been made." 

The appropriations made by the Legislative Assembly in 
1842, payable out of the moneys appropriated by Congress 
for defraying its expenses, amounted to $24,073,58, bqsides 
the per diem and mileage of members (about $10,000 more), 
for which certificates were issued by the presiding officers 
of each house. 

The appropriation bill was vetoed by the Governor, but 
passed the Council by a vote of 9 to 2, and the House of 
Representatives by a vote of 19 to 6, and thus became a law. 

Certificates of indebtedness or scrip were issued in pur- 
suance of an act of the Legislative Assembly approved 
February 15, 1842. The act provided that the Treasurer of 
the Territory be authorized and required to issue to the sev- 
23 



354 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

eral creditors whose demands were properly chargeable to 
the fund appropriated by Congress, drafts or bills for the 
amounts due them respectively, drawn upon the Secretary 
of the Territory in denominations of five and ten dollars, or 
in such amount as might be desired by the creditor, payable 
to the person to whom issued or bearer and transferable by 
delivery, for the payment of which the moneys to be there- 
after appropriated by Congress were pledged. 

In response to a resolution of the Council, the Secretary of 
the Territory (A. P. Field) submitted a report stating the 
amount of certificates issued in conformity with the act of 
the previous session, authorizing the Secretary of the Ter- 
ritorv to issue certificates of the amounts due to the credi- 
tors of the Territory bearing ten per cent, interest for the 
expenses of that session and the unpaid expenses of previ- 
ous sessions. 

This report showed that the certificates issued by his 
predecessor (F. J. Dunn) amounted to $33,754.57, of which 
$28,105.00, were for appropriations of the last session and 
$5,649.57, for appropriations of previous sessions and that 
those issued by himself amounted to $2,015.75, all for previ- 
ous sessions and that the whole amount issued by him and 
his predecessors was $35,768.32. 

Secretary Field further stated that this amount did not 
include the whole amount of indebtedness of the Territory 
on account of appropriations made by previous Legislatures 
but as far as he could learn there was some $4,000 due for 
which certificates had not been issued, and he states that 
the whole may be fairly estimated at $40,000. 

Whenever certificates were issued, a receipt for a cor- 
responding amount was taken by the Secretary, which re- 
ceipts upon being forwarded to the proper accounting 
officers at Washington, served as vouchers showing the dis- 
bursements of the appropriations made by Congress. The 
vouchers thus taken and forwarded by Mr. Dunn, amount- 
ing to $33,754.57, were with the exception of a few items 
placed to his credit in the first auditor's office. 

But a new difficulty now arose which created great em- 
barrassment, and a serious injury to the holders of these 
certificates. Mr. Dunn who had been credited with the 
vouchers had been removed and Mr. Field had been ap- 
pointed his successor, and it was months before the Secre- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 355 

taryof the Treasury could or would decide to which of these 
two officers the appropriation should be paid over. 

In this condition of affairs a resolution was submitted by 
the delegate calling on the Secretary of the Treasury to re- 
port to the House of Representatives the causes which had 
prevented the payment of the appropriation to the Terri- 
tory. The resolution was adopted, and soon after, in the 
month of June, the sum of $44,9G3 was paid over to Mr. Sec- 
retary Field. 

Under the pre-emption act of 1834, a number of settlers 
on the public lands in the district of lands subject to sale at 
Mineral Point, who would otherwise have been entitled to 
enter IGO acres, by pre-emption, were refused the privileges 
granted by such act in consequence of the mineral charac- 
ter of the land claimed by them. For the relief of such per- 
sons an act of Congress was passed August 23, 1842, by 
virtue of which all such settlers were permitted to enter at 
the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, one 
complete quarter section of land, of any lands in said dis- 
trict which had not then been offered at public sale, and 
which did not contain mines or discoveries of lead ore, and 
upon which there was no improvement or residence, and 
which had not been reserved from sale. 

At this session of Congress the following post- routes were 
established in Wisconsin, viz. : 

From Patch Grove, in Grant county, to Blue River. 

From Fort Winnebago, via Grand Rapids, to Plover Port- 
age. 

From Delavan, by Darien, to Beloit. 

From Fort Atkinson, by Cold Spring and Whitewater, to 
Elkhorn. 

From Summit, in Milwaukee county, via Piperville and 
Watertown, to Washara (or Fox Lake). 

From Southport t'fa Aurora post-office, to Burlington. 

From Madison, by Monroe, to Freeport, Illinois. 

From Milwaukie, via Muskeego, Rochester, and Burling- 
ton, to Geneva. 

On the 29th of January, 1842, the delegate in Congress 
(Gen. Dodge) called the attention of the Commissioner of 
Pensions to the great delay that had occurred in the pay- 
ment of pensioners in Wisconsin. On the 31st of January 



356 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the Commissioner informed Gen. Dodge that Charles 
Doty, Esq., of Madison, was appointed agent for paying 
pensioners on the 28th of December, and that his bond was 
daily expected, and that as soon as received he would be in- 
structed to enter on the duties of the office. 
Governor Dodge immediately replied, stating — 

"I am informed by a gentleman of high respectability now in this city (Washington), that 
Charles Doty is the son of Governor Doty of Wisconsin, and that he is a minor, not to 
exceed nineteen years of age. If such is the fact no official bonds he may sign would be 
binding." 

On the 16th of February Governor Dodge authorized the 
commissioner to furnish Governor Doty with a copy of the 
above letter of 1st inst. 

On the 5th of May the commissioner, in a letter to Gov- 
ernor Dodge, stated — 

"So soon as you informed me that Mr. Charles Doty was under twenty-one years of 
age, I immediately wrote to him and his father, and on receipt of the answer to my 
inquiry another agent was appointed. That agent was Mr. Paraclete Potter, Register of 
the Land Office at Milwaukee. He was appointed on the 31st of March last. His bond as 
agent may be expected daily." 

The bond of Mr. Potter was received on the 10th of May 
and his instructions were immediately sent to him with the 
necessary funds. 

In the recess between the first and second sessions of the 
third Legislative Assembly some changes occurred in the 
personnel of both houses. 

In the Council John H. Tweedy of Milwaukee was elected 
in place of Jonathan E. Arnold, resigned, and Moses M. 
Strong of Iowa county in place of Levi Sterling, resigned. 

In the House of Eepresentatives Jonathan Eastman was 
elected from Racine county in place of Reuben H. Deming, 
resigned. 

James Tripp from Walworth county in place of Hugh 
Long, resigned, and Thomas Jenkins in Iowa county in 
place of Francis J. Dunn resigned. 

In the county of Racine Messrs. George Batchelder and 
Reuben H. Deming resigned their seats and their resigna- 
tions were received at the executive office in due season. 
Thomas E. Parmelee resigned his seat by a note addressed 
twelve days before the election to the board of county com- 
missioners of Racine county. An election was ordered by 
proclamation of the governor to fill two vacancies in that 
county and four persons were voted for. George Batchel- 



n 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1840. 357 

DER received 395 votes, Jonathan Eastman 378, Elisha S. 
Sill 366 and Philo Belden 357. " 

Mr. Parmelee claimed that as his resignation was not 
acted upon, and no election held to fill the vacancy, he was 
entitled to retain the seat. 

Mr. Sill contested the right of Mr, Parmelee to the seat 
and claimed to be entitled to it himself. 

The contest was referred to the committee on privileges 
and elections which made a majority and minority report. 

The majority reported a resolution that Mr. Parmelee 

" Is not entitled to a seat 'in this House and that the seat now occupied by said Parmelee 
be declared vacant." 

The report of the minority was that he was entitled to the 
seaii. 

The resolution having been amended so as to read 

"That Thomas E. Parmelee has resigned his seat in this house, and that thereby said seat 
became vacant," 

was adopted by a vote 19 to 5, those who voted in the nega- 
tive being Messrs. Bond, Brunson, Ogden, Parkinson and 
Whiton. 

In the contest of Theophalus La'Chappelle for the seat 
occupied by Alfred Brunson at the previous session, the 
commissioner, Joseph R. Brown, on the second day of this 
session submitted his report containing the testimony of 
twenty-two persons. 

The matters in controversy were referred to the committee 
on privilege and elections, which reported the facts in the 
case but made no report as to who was entitled to the seat. 

Both parties were heard by very able counsel, the contest- 
ant being represented by Hon. Alex. P. Field, and the 
contestee by Hon. Thomas P. Burnett. 

The contest depended largely upon the question whether 
the testimony taken by the commissioner was taken in ac- 
cordance with the .resolution of the House, by which the 
taking of it was authorized. A result was reached on the 
20th of January, when it was decided by a vote of 13 to 11 
that Mr. Brunson was not entitled to the seat, and that Mr. 
La'Chappelle was, who then appeared and took the oath 
of office as a member. 

But few of the members of either House had been elected 
with reference to their party affiliations, yet in the organi- 
zation of both the spirit of party which had distinctly 



358 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

marked the election of Delegate in the previous September, 
dominated in the election of presiding officer. 

Mr. RouNTREE of Grant, a Whig, was on the first day- 
elected President pro tern, of the Council without oppo- 
sition, but it was not until the ninth day of the session that 
the permanent President was elected. Upon a party divi- 
sion there were seven Whigs and six Democrats. Mr. Roun- 
TREE was the Whig candidate, but he could not be elected 
without voting for himself, which he persistently refused 
to do. The Democrats sometimes voted for one of their 
number and sometimes for another. They finally proposed 
to the Whigs to elect one of their number, but for several 
days the proposition was declined until the twenty-second 
ballot, when they acceded to it, and James Collins 
received three Democratic and six Whig votes, M. L. Mar- 
tin three Democratic votes — Mr. Collins's vote being cast 
blank — and he was elected. 

George Beatty was re-elected Secretary without opposi- 
tion. 

In the House of Representatives there were sixteen Dem- 
ocrats, counting Mr. Parmelee, and ten Whigs. Mr. Ellis 
was elected Speaker pro tern., after which the Democrats in 
caucus agreed upon Mr. Newland, who was elected on the 
first ballot. 

John Catlin was elected Chief Clerk without opposition. 

In the Council on the first day and about the first busi- 
ness, Mr. Janes of Racine offered a resolution that the 
standing rules of the last session be adopted. Mr. Strong 
of Iowa moved to amend so as to exclude the 48th rule, 
which required executive sessions to be held with closed 
doors. After some slight opposition the amendment was 
adopted. 

The Legislative Assembly met on the 6th day of Decem- 
ber, 1841, but owing to delays in the organization the Gov- 
ernor was not officially notified until the 9th, and on the 
10th he met the two houses jointly assembled, and ad- 
dressed them — 

"Upon such subjects affecting the public good as in his opinion are entitled to the con- 
sideration of the representatives of the people." 

It Avas the longest paper of that kind which had ever been 
submitted by any Governor of the Territory. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 359 

It commenced with the expression of the opinion that it 
was 

" Expedient to adopt measures preparatory to a change in the government of Wisconsin 
from a Territory to a State," 

and several reasons were given for this opinion. 

The Governor's address deprecated the Territorial debt 
which had been created by former Legislatures, and was in 
the shape of bonds or certificates, and he said that it ap- 
peared to him that the power to create it was not intended 
to be granted — and was not granted — to the Governor and 
Assembly. 

"The holders of the bonds," he said, " can have no other remedy than by application to 
Congress." 

The address said : 

" Excessive legislation is an evil of the greatest magnitude ; and rapid changes in the 
" laws are injurious to the private rights and to the public interests. ^Ir. Jeffersox said : 
" ' the instability is really a very serious inconvenience. I think we ought to have obviated 
" it by deciding that a whole year should always be allowed to elapse between bringing in 
" a bill and the final passing of it. It should afterwards be discussed and put to the vote 
" without the possibility of making any alteration in it ; and if the circumstances of the 
" case required a more speedy decision, the question should not be decided by a simple 
"majority, but by a majority of atlea^t two-thirds of both Houses.' " 

The Governor expressed the opinion that the provisions of 
the act organizing the Territory, required the laws to be 
actually submitted to Congress before they take effect. This 
opinion had, as will be seen, a very consequential effect 
upon his administration of the executive dejDartment of the 
Territorial Government. 

The address disapproved in stroiag language the laws by 
which monopolies — acts of incorporation granting exclus- 
ive privileges to certain individuals — "The offspring of the 
last four years" had been created, and also those incorpora- 
ting villages. 

Attention was called to the state of the currency, and a 
question was suggested whether the people of the Territory 
had been benefited by the destruction of the banks and the 
introduction of foreign depreciated paper. He thought an 
effort ought to be made to secure specie and the notes of 
specie paying banks for a circulating medium, by prohibit- 
ing the use of depreciated bank paper. A favorable allusion 
was made to the establishment by Wisconsin 

" Of an institution which may be hereafter created by herself, whose circulation shall be 
based upon specie, and whose privileges shall be so few and so closelj- guarded that the 
public interests will be entirely protected. 

The address recommended that to encourage the groivth 



360 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

of ivool, sheep and their fleeces be exemj)t from taxation 
for a term of years. 

The protection of the business of mining and smelting 
and of the fur trade were favorably mentioned. 

The improvement of the navigation of the Fox and Wis- 
consin Rivers was strongly recommended and that of the 
Rock and Peckatonica when Illinois shall have rendered the 
Rock navigable from the present boundary to its mouth, 
and the hope is expressed that appropriations will be ob- 
tained from Congress to improve the navigation of the 
Platte and Grant Rivers and the River of the Four Lakes. 

A rail or macadamized road ought, he said, to be con- 
structed on the most practicable route from Lake Michigan 
to the Mississippi River, and turnpike or macadamized roads 
are much required through the timbered as well as some 
other sections of the Territory. 

Complaint was made of the system of taxation and the 
opinion was expressed that county officers ought 

" To rendei- such services as are required on behalf of the pubhc without compensation. 
'That the honor of the office is its reward'." 

A more effective system for the support of common 
schools was recommended, and the establishment of a high 
school. 

The militia did not escape consideration 

The address recommended — 

" That the removal of all Indians within oiir limits, except those who are settled as agri- 
culturists, be urged upon Government as an act of humanity to them, and as the only safe 
protection which it can give to this frontier.'" 

Complaint was made that the public offices had not been 
held at the seat of government, and that the public records 
of the executive department were not at that place. 

The Governor closed with the assurance to the members 
of both houses that he should — 

" Earnestly endeavor to co-operate with them in aU such measures as may be proposed 
by them to correct the evils of government, to secure the civil and political rights of indi- 
viduals, to strengthen the foundations of society, or to render more permanent the institu- 
tions of freedom." 

The question of the expediency of forming a State govern- 
ment was one that occupied the attention of the inhabitants 
of the Territory for six years or more previous to the admis- 
sion of the State into the Union. The year 1842 was not 
an exception, although the population had not reached fifty 
thousand, while sixty thousand was the minimum number 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 361 

which, under the ordinance of 1787, entitled the "fifth 
State" to a place in the Union of States. 

During the administration of Gov. Doty the interest of 
the people in the question was intensified and extended 
over the northern portion of Illinois, by the aggressive ef- 
forts of the Governor to unite the " free inhabitants" of the 
district west of Lake Michigan and north of an east and 
west line running through its southern bend, in the forma- 
tion of the " fifth State" contemplated by that ordinance. 

So much of the Governors address to the two Houses as 
related to the formation of a State government was referred 
to a committee in each House. 

In the Council, Mr. Upham, from the committee on Terri- 
torial affairs (consisting of Messrs. Upham, Maktin and 
Beigham) submitted a report on the 8th of February. It said: 

"The right of forming a State governmeut with that Territory (northern Illinois) when 
the population amounts to sixty thousand or upwards, and claiming an admission into the 
Union under the Ordinance of 1787, is one question, the expediency of doing it is another." 

The committee had little difficulty in coming to the con- 
clusion that the inhabitants of the "fifth state" had the right 
to adopt the east and west line running through the south- 
ern bend of Lake Michigan and form a state north of it, and 
west of the Lake and demand its admission into the Union 
with that boundary, provided it contained sixty thousand 
free inhabitants. 

Upon the question of expediency, the committee expressed 
no opinion, but proposed that the people of Wisconsin should 
decide it. For that purpose they reported a bill providing 
for referring the question of forming a State government to 
the people at the next general election, and also a resolution 
recommending to the people of the territory under the juris- 
diction of Illinois, to hold an election at the same time on 
the question of uniting with us in forming a State govern- 
ment. 

In the House of Representatives, Hon. A. G. Ellis from 
the committee on Territorial Affairs to which the same sub- 
jects had been referred, submitted a report on the 11th of 
January. 

The report was very pronounced in opposition to the form- 
ation of a State government, as also to embracing the "dis- 
puted territory;" and submitted the following resolutions: 

"That the time has not arrived when it is expedient to adopt measures preparatory to a 
change in the form of government of Wisconsin. 



362 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

"That our present Territorial Government is suited to our condition; that we ought to 
adhere to it till we have population sufficient in our present limits to entitle us to one rep- 
resentative on the floor of Congress. 

"That the question of annexation of that part of the State of Illinois generally known as 
the 'disputed tracf to this Territory, ought not to be submitted to and settled by the vote of 
the inhabitants of that tract alone, but should be decided only with the advice and consent 
of the people of Wisconsin." 

"That such annexation ought never to be made until the tract is discharged from its 
share of the public debt, as a part of the State of Illinois, nor until the population of Wis- 
consin shall be equal to that of said tract." 

The bill and resolution reported in the Council were both 
passed by that body and sent to the House of Representa- 
tives, where they were laid on the table and no attempt 
was afterwards made to take them up for consideration. 

The resolutions reported in the Hou.?e were never taken 
up or considered by that body, and no act or resolution on 
the subject met with the concurrent action of both branches 
of the Legislative Assembly. 

On the 19th of February a meeting of the citizens of 
Stephenson county, Illinois, was held at Freeport, at which 
resolutions were adopted asserting the right of the inhabi- 
tants of the Territory west of Lake Michigan and north of 
an east and west line through its southern bend, to become 
the "Fifth State," under the ordinance of '87, and that an 
election be held on the 5th day of March, in the several elec- 
tion precincts in that county, for or against the organiza- 
tion of such state. Judges of election were also appointed 
by the meeting for each precinct. 

The elections were held and 570 votes were cast, of which 
all but one were in favor of the proposed State government. 

On the 28th of June, Governor Doty addressed to the 
Governor of Illinois an official letter, calling his attention 
to the fact that the commissioners appointed to locate the 
lands granted by the United States to the State of Illinois, 
had made the principal part of their selections, in the " dis- 
puted territory," and protesting against such selections, 

" Because they are within the limits of the fifth of the Northwestern States, established 
by the Ordinance of 1787, and not, therefore, within the constitutional boundaries of the 
state of Illinois." 

la concluding this protest Governor Doty said : 

" I cannot but remark the impropriety of permitting Illinois to become so extensive a 
landholder within a district which it is believed does not belong to her, and over which she 
can only be regarded as exercising accidentally and temporarily her jurisdiction." 

At the August (general) election held in Boon county, 
where 496 votes were cast, a voluntary election was held for 



TERRITOEY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 



363 



or against being attached to Wisconsin, when there were 485 
in favor of it, and 11 not voting. 

On the 13th of August, Gov. Doty issued and had exten- 
sively pubhshed, a proclamation, under the Great Seal of 
the Territory, reciting that whereas, it was the opinion of 
many citizens that the Ordinance of 1787 and subsequent 
acts of Congress, guarantee to tlie people west of Lake 
Michigan and north of the line west from its southern bend, 
the right to form a permanent constitution and government ; 
and whereas, it was desirable that it should be known 
whether it is the wish of the people to form such constitu- 
tion : Therefore, it was recommended to the said " free 
inhabitants " that they do each, on the 4tli Monday of Septem- 
ber, vote "yea" or "nay," as the vote may be in favor of or 
against ihe formation of a permanent government for the 
State of Wiskonsan^ Provision was made in the proclama- 
tion for the return and canvassing the votes. 

Only nine of the twenty counties then organized made 
any returns of elections under the proclamation. 

These are here tabulated, showing that less than twenty- 
five hundred of the "free inhabitants " paid any attention 
to the proclamation, of which more than three fourths were 
against the formation of a State government. 



Counties. 


For. 


Against. 


Dane and Sauk 


43 
1 

98 
98- 
79 
95 
130 

ro 


44 


Fond du Lac 


47 


Green 


15 


Iowa 


010 


.Tefferson . 


05 


Jlilwaukee 


634 


Racine 


206 


Rock 


193 


Shebovean 


29 






019 




Total 


1,813 





On the 14th of January a resolution was adopted by the 
House of Representatives requesting the delegate in Con- 
gress to ascertain what progress had been made in the sur- 
vey of the boundary between the State of jMichigan and 
Wisconsin, and to obtain copies of the reports of the officer 
in charge of that work. 



364 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

On the 16th of February, near the close of the session, 
the Governor sent a special message to the Legislative As- 
sembly in which he said : 

" It is ascertained that a part of the western boundary of the State of Michigan as pre- 
scribed by the act of Congress of the 15tli of June, 1836, is an impracticable line, there 
being no such natural boundary as is therein described. The Lake of the Desert does not 
discharge its waters into the Montreal River. 

It having, therefore, become necessary to designate a new line, I avail myself of the 
occasion to present the subject to the notice of the Assembly, that such measures as are 
proper may be adopted to procure the recognition by the government of the United 
states of the boundary which was established between Michigan and Wisconsin 
in 1805." 

The message was referred to the committee on Territorial 
affairs which reported resolutions concurring with the Gov- 
ernor, stating that the 

" New line" ought to be " a line drawn through the middle of Lake Michigan to its north- 
ern extremity." 

And protesting against any other boundary, and that our 
delegate in Congress be requested to use his influence to 
procure the establishment of such a boundary. 

The resolutions were adopted without a division. 

The several parts of the Governor's address were referred 
in each House to appropriate committees. 

Among other resolutions adopted by the House was this: 

" That so much of the message of the Governor as relates to excessive legislation, and 
what Mr. Jefferson said, be referred to the committee on the judiciary." 

The committee consisted of Messrs. Whjton, Dewey, Bar- 
ber, Ellis, and Parkinson. 

Mr. Whiton, chairman of the committee, made the fol- 
lowing report : 

" The committee on the judiciary, to whom was referred so much of the message of his 
Excellency, the Governor, as relates to excessive legislation, and what Mr. Jefferson said, 
report : That they fully concur with the Governor in the opinion that excessive legisla- 
tion is a great evil, and that rapid changes in the laws are injurious to private rights and 
to public interests. But as the Governor has recommended no specific measures in rela- 
tion to the subject, unless it be the one which seems to have received the approbation of 
Mr. Jefferson, the committee would confine their observations to the one which that 
great statesman deemed a salutary one. 

"The committee are of the opinion that the measure recommended, however proper in 
older states, where great changes in the condition of the people seldom take place, would 
be found very inconvenient and indeed almost impracticable in a community as new as 
ours, where the population increases with such great rapidity, where wealth is accumu- 
lated with so much facility by almost every class of society, and where consequently great 
changes are constantly occurring. Where these changes take place new interests are con- 
sequently springing up which require the speedy attention of the Legislature, and if a year 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 365 

was allowed to elapse between the bringing in of a bill and the flnal palling of it, great in- 
jury might result. Nor do the committee think it would be politic or proper to require a 
majority of two-thirds to pass a law. They have arrived at the conclusion that suffleient 
checks now exist to prevent hasty legislation. The Territory has a Legislature consisting 
of three branches, one of which is not chosen or appointed by the people of the Territory. 

"If all these branches concur in passing a law, it afterwards is subject to be negatived by 
Congress and becomes null and void, and acts incorporating banks do not take effect until 
approved by Congress. It is true that two-thirds of both houses can pass an act without 
the assent of the Governor, but the negative of Congress is absolute. If Congress had 
no power to negative our acts it might be well to require a majority of two-thirds to pass 
acts creating corporations, especially banking institutions, as is required in the State of 
New York, but as the Territory is now situated in relation to laws passed by its Legislatm-e, 
we think the requirement unnecessary. The committee entertain in common with all 
classes in society, a very great respect for the opinions which Mr. Jefferson expressed on 
all subjects connected with government, but cannot bring themselves to the conclusion 
that they ought in this jDarticular instance to govern us in our legislative action. The evil 
complained of must be corrected by the Legislature taking care to pass no laws which will 
not subserve the interests of the people." 

In the Council, so much of the Governor's address as re- 
lates to banks and other incorporations was referred to the 
committee on incorporations, which consisted of Messrs. 
Strong, Learned and Brigham. 

Mr. Strong, chairman of that committee, submitted a re- 
port, in which after expressing the concurrence of the com- 
mittee in the opinions expressed by the Governor in relation 
to monopolies, says: 

"They are, however, of the opinion that these corporations, which have yielded the bit- 
terest "fruit for the people,' are not the 'offspring' of the last four years," 

and that the Bank of Wisconsin chartered seven years ago, 
and the Bank of Mineral Point chartered five years ago, 
pre-eminently demand the attention of the Legislature, and 
that these acts appear as clearly as any others "to have 
been granted to favor particular persons," and that ''They 
are incorporations to aid speculation." 

The committee did not concur with the Governor in the 
idea which he seemed to convey, that the banks had been 
destroyed by the Legislature, but conceived that "They had 
destroyed themselves." 

The report further says : 

"Your committee entertain no doubt but that the Legislature possesses the power to 
prohibit the circulation, and the buying and selling of depreciated bank paper, within the 
limits of the Territory, and that, too, without placing them, as the Governor does, on the 
footing of counterfeit notes; but the experience of other States, which have made the ex- 
periment, admonishes them, that a law, having that for the object, would never be carried 
into practical operation ; that it would remain a dead letter upon our statute-book ; or at 
best serve but as an instrument in the haqds of the malicious, to injure or annoy their 



366 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

more honest and undesigning neighbors, and they are therefore of the opinion that such a 
law would be unwise and imi^olitic. The other suggestion in relation to ' an institution to 
be hereafter created ■■ your committee conceive (if it is a recommendation of any tiling) 
is a recommendation for the incorporation of another bauk, and the committee cannot per- 
ceive why it is not justly open to the same objections which the Governor has so forcibly 
and clearly pointed out as existing against monopolies generally; and — applying the 
language of tlie Governor to such an institution — the committee conceive it would be an 
incorporation ' giauting exclusive privileges to certain individuals'; 'that it would justly 
excite alarm in the minds of all men who are friendly to equal rights, and to the establish- 
ment of all such institutions as are most favorable to Democracy ' ; that it would be a com- 
bination of 'political power and wealth,' a ' petty aristocracy'; the offspring of the year that 
brought it forth; and in whatever neighborhood it might be planted, althoujjh it ' might now 
give temporary benefits to a few individuals, we may expect the time will soon arrive when 
it would yield only bitter fruit for the people ' ; it would be an ' incorporation to aid specu- 
lation.' Your committee cannot, therefore, recommend the passage of such an act of 
incorporation." 

In the House the committee on mining and smelting, to 
which was referred by resolution that part of the Governor's 
message relating to the duties on lead, by Mr. Jenkins, the 
chairman, reported : 

" That thej' have in vain examined the message of His Excellency, for the piu-pose of 
finding any portion having any particular bearing upon the subject submitted, and that 
they are unable to make a report based upon any recommendation in fhe message . 

'■ The Governor has not in any manner, at least in a direct way, alluded to the particu- 
lar interests of the miner and smelter of the Territory. Although, in general terms, he 
has stated what everybody knows, viz.: 'That the protection of the business of mining 
and smelting lead ore, which has heretofore been afforded by the United States, by the 
duty on lead, has enabled the miners of Wisconsin to supply chiefly the consumi^tion of 
the United States,' etc. Yet, there he leaves the matter, so far as the interests of the 
miniiig portions of the Territory are concerned, without any specific recommendation or 
expression of opinion, and concludes his only paragraph on the subject by paying a high 
compliment to the Boston merchants, which exhibits more solicitude on the part of the ex- 
ecutive for the enterprise of the 'enterprising merchants' of the city alluded to, than for 
the interests of the enterprising miners and smelters of his own Territory, whose claims 
upon his attention were certainly greater than those of any foreign class." 

A reference was made in both Houses to so much of the 
Governor's address as relates to the prosecution of the in- 
land trade, the Milwaukee and Rock River canal, the im- 
provement of rivers, the construction of rail, turnj)ike and 
McAdamized roads. 

Able reports upon these subjects were made in both 
Houses. So much of these reports as relates to the canal 
and cognate matters will be considered in a future chapter 
devoted to that particular subject. 

The substance of the reports in both houses is contained 
in the report of the committee on Internal Improvements in 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 367 

the Council, which consisted of Messrs. Tweedy, Janes and 
Beigham. 

The report of this committee submitted by Mr. Tweedy 
its chairman, stated in reference to a raih'oad from the Mis- 
sissippi river to Lake Michigan, that: 

"Measures designed to cany into effi'ct these recommendations were some time since 
presented for the action of the Council." 

The only measure, however, which was adopted by the 
legislature, in this report was a joint resolution 

'"That the Congress of the United States be lu-gently requested to make an appropriation 
of ten thousand dollars, to be expended under the direction of the TeiTitorial engineer for 
the survey of a railroad from Potosi in Grant county on the Mississippi river to Lake 
Michigan, to form a part of the chain of iuteiual improvements, from the Atlantic to the 
Mississipjii river." 

Congress did not respond to the "urgent request" and no 
appropriation for that purpose was made. The report con- 
tinues: 

"The improvement of the Rock and Peckatonica rivers and of the river of the Four 
Lakes has from year to year engaged the attention of the legislature, and been recom- 
mended to the favor of Congress. 

It is believed that further action on this subject is not advisable at the present session of 
the Legislative Assembly. 

Your committee coucm* in opinion with His Excellency that turnpike and McAdamized 
roads are much required through the timbered and other sections of the Territory. They 
do not conceive, however, that any company should be incorporated or that taxes in any of 
the several counties should be appropriated by law, for the prosecution of such improve- 
ments in any case, until such legislative aid is demanded by the people of the districts 
which will be affected thereby." 

Mr. Whiton, from the judiciary committee of the House, 
to which that part of the message of the Governor was re- 
ferred relative to taxes and tax titles, submitted a very able 
a,nd lucid report, such as might have been expected from 
the pen of that great jurist. 

After demonstrating that every government possesses the 
power of determining what property shall be taxed and 
what shall be exempt, and that a wise exercise of that 
power is expedient and just, the report proceeds at consid- 
erable length, to consider the objections of the Governor to 
the system of taxation then in existence in the Territory. 
These objections, the report said, appeared to be five in 
number. 

First. That the taxes are too high. 

Second. That property is exempt from taxation which 
ought not to be. 

Third. That the taxes are illegal. 



368 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Fourth. That the land upon which taxes are assessed and 
not paid is sold; and 

Fifth. That the law which limits the right of bringing an 
action to recover back land sold for taxes to three years is 
wrong. 

The refutation of all these objections is so complete that 
no abbreviation of it could do it justice, and only a refer- 
ence to it in the journal of the House of that session (page 
133) can be made. 

The removal of the Indians from Wisconsin, recom- 
mended by the Governor, received the favorable considera- 
tion of the Legislative Assembly by the adoption of joint 
resolutions, that the delegate in Congress be requested to 
urge upon the general government the necessity of freeing 
the Territory from the Indian population within her limits, 
and their permanent location in a district of country west 
of the Mississippi, to which the white settlements shall not 
extend and where the energies of the government maj^ be 
directed to the improvement of their condition. 

So much of the Governor's address as relates to schools 
and to the University was referred in the House to the com- 
mittee on schools, and the Rev. Alfred Bronson, chairman 
of that committee, before the adoption of a resolution that 
he was not entitled to a seat, made very elaborate reports 
accompanied by two bills, one in relation to schools, the 
other in relation to the University. 

The first after being emasculated so as to limit its opera- 
tion to the protection of school lands was passed into a law 
and the other was indefinitely postponed in the House. 

Acts were passed to incorporate academies at Platteville 
and at Delavan. 

The subjects of exempting sheep and their fieeces from 
taxation for the purpose of encouraging the growth of ivool, 
the fur trade and the holding of public offices away from 
the seat of government, brought to the attention of the 
Legislative Assembly by the Governor, did not make a fav- 
orable impression upon either house, and were not even 
considered by either. 

One of the most important subjects which demanded leg- 
islative action, appears to have entirely escaped the atten- 
tion of the Governor and was not referred to in his address. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 



3G9 



This was a new apportionmpnt of members for the fourth 
Legiskxtive Assembly. 

A resohition was adopted by the Council that a select com- 
mittee be appointed on apportionment. The committee 
consisted of Alessrs. Tweedy, Brigham and Strong. 

Mr. Tweedy in behalf of the committee submitted a re- 
port which stated that several bases had been suggested, 
(1) The votes cast at the late general election in the several 
districts. (2) A conjectural estimate of the increase of pop- 
ulation. (;5) A new census to be ordered to be taken during 
the ensuing summer, (i) The census of 1840. Of these 
several bases, they say: 

" The two first mentioned are liable to numerous fatal objections too obvious to require 
notice. 

" A new census would furnish the true basis. But the expense attending the enumera- 
tion of the inhabitants, and of an extra session of the Legislature presents an objection 
of policy, which in the opinion of your committee, sliould deter the Legislature from pro- 
viding for another census at the present time. 

"Tills objection may be avoided in part by authorizing the Governor to make an ap- 
portionment upon the basis of a census to be taken, upon principles to be prescribed by 
law." 

The committee, therefore, adopted the fourth of the above 
bases — the census of ] 840. 

Having decided that the existing arrangement of the 
election districts should not be disturbed they reported a 
bill with the folloAving apportionment : 



Names of Election Districts. 



Milwaukee and Washington counties 

Grant county 

Iowa county 

Rock and Walworth counties 

Crawford and St. Croix counties 

Green, Daiu', JclTcrsoii, IHnlge, and Saulc counties 

Brown county and counties attached, including Portage. 
Racine county 

Totals 



a 


"bS 


o 


B 


O +3 


o 
o 


a 


«M 


"-• <u 


o 


O M 








w t. 


B 


is 


r^ 


r^ 


Q 


6 


.> 


3 


.1 


3 


O 


4 


1 


O 


1 


•> 


1 


4 










13 


20 



24 



370 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



Subsequently Mr. Bullen, on leave, introduced a bill to 
provide for the taking of the census of the inhabitants, and 
to authorize the Governor to apportion the members of the 
Council and House of Eepresentatives. After much discus- 
sion, the bill reported by the select committee was laid on 
the table, and the bill introduced by Mr. Bullen was passed. 
In the House it was at first negatived, and afterward recon- 
sidered and passed. 

The law as passed provided for an enumeration of the in- 
habitants of the Territory, omitting Indians not citizens and 
officers and soldiers of the army. It was to commence on 
the first day of June and be completed in fifty days, by the 
sheriffs and their deputies. The returns were to be made in 
duplicate to the Register of Deeds and Secretary of the Ter- 
ritory. The Secretary was to make and file an abstract of 
the returns and furnish the Governor with a copy of it. 

The Governor was then to make an apportionment of 
the members of the Council and House of Representatives 
among the several election districts, in a mode particularly 
prescribed by the act; and at least thirty days preceding the 
annual election to be held in September (fourth Monday), he 
was to make proclamation declaring the apportionment 
made under the act. 

The number of inhabitants in each county and the appor- 
tionment is shown in the following table : 





5a 


1.2 


"3 
a 


6 
ta 

§ 


Name of Counties. 


a 


C to 

1 fl 


«3 


OS 








<v 


Oi 




O M 


O a) 


^ 


Xi 




-M 






a 




o § 


O d 


0) 


s. 




^*^ 


!^- 


»=i 


F=> 




9,565 
965 










10,530 
6,318 


3 
2 


6 






"Racinp 


6,318 


3 






Brown 


2,146 
143 










TVTflvnnftf.f* 


59 








Sheboygan 


231 
















2C3 








Oflliimph *•■ 


407 








*Pr»nfl fill Tjflf* 


295 








Portage 


646 


4,180 


1 


3 













TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 



371 



Name of Counties. 


2 '*' 

03 = 

c 5 


1— 1 'X 
1— 1 


'3 

53 
2 


® 

3 
O 

CO 

3 
.o 

53 


■\Valworth 

Rock 


4,G18 

2.S67 


7,485 


4 






Dane 


776 
1..594 

1,038 
239 
303 




Green . 








Jefferson 








Dodge 








Sauk 


4,.550 
5 029 
5,937 








1 
1 

a 
1 




Iowa 


5,029 


3 






Grant 


5,9.37 


3 






Crawford 


1,449 
1.200 


3 


St Croix (estimated) ... 


2. 6 '.9 


1 






Totals 


46,078 


46,678 











At this session the county of Richland was formed out of 
the county of Crawford and attached temporarily to the 
county of Iowa. 

The counties of Calumet and Winnebago were organized 
for all purposes of county government. 

It appeared from the report of a committee appointed to 
examine the returns that the counties in which a majority 
of the votes cast on the question were in favor of the act, 
approved February 18, 1841, 

" For the government of the several towns in this Territory and for the revision of 
county government," 

were Jefferson, Milwaukee, Walworth, Racine, Fond du 
Lac, Rock, Crawford and Brown ; in Green and Iowa coun- 
ties the majorities were against the act ; and from the 
counties of Dane, Sauk, Portage, Dodge, St. Croix, Sheboy- 
gan, Manitowoc, Washington and Grant, no returns were 
received. 

An act was passed in 1812, declaring that said act 
had been adopted by the people of the counties of Milwau- 
kee, Racine, Walworth, Rock, Jefferson, Brown and Fond 
du Lac, and should be in force in those counties on the first 
Tuesday of April next ; and its taking effect in all other 



372 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

counties in which it had been adopted should be postponed 
to the first Tuesday of April, 1843. 

A number of towns were organized by act of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly at this session : Wheatland, Paris, Mount 
Pleasant, Yorkville and Caledonia, in Racine county ; Fond 
du lac, Calumet and Waupun, in the county of Fond du 
Lac ; Warren, in Milwaukee county ; Clinton, Beloit, Rock, 
Union, Center, Janesville and Milton in the county of Rock, 
and the name of the town of Finch in Jefferson county was 
changed to Koshkonong. 

Four acts were passed at this session to amend acts of 
previous legislatures, incorporating villages, each of which 
was vetoed by the Governor, and passed by a majority of 
two thirds of each House, notwithstanding the objections 
of the Governor, One of these vetoes is a fair sample of all 
and is as follows : 

"I consider tha original charter to have been passed without authority, and that it con- 
tains provisions which are in violation of the act of Congress establishing the Territorial 
governmeat of Wisconsin. 

" All laws passed in this Territory must, according to the requirement of that act, be 
submitted to Congress. If the Legislature had the power to create this corporation, it 
could not confer upon the corporation greater powers than itself possessed, nor authority 
to exercise them in a manner different from that prescribed for the Legislature by the act 
of Congress. 

" The provisions of this bill, in my opinion, conflict with those of the act of Congress, 
and I must, therefore, decline signing it. J. D. Doty." 

The act amending the charter of Southport was passed 
over the veto by a vote of 9 to 1 in the Council and 21 to 
in the House (unanimous). 

That to amend the charter of Racine by a vote of 9 to 2 
in the Council and 23 to 2 in the House. 

That to amend the charter of Milwaukee by a vote of 9 
to 1 in the Council and 23 to 1 in the House. 

That to amend the charter of Green Bay by a vote of 9 to 
1 in the Council and 24: to in the House. 

Two other acts were passed over the Governor's veto: 

One was an act to incorporate the Janesville Bridge Com- 
pany, which passed the Council by a vote of 9 to 2 and the 
House unanimously — ayes 25, noes 0. 

The other was " An act to provide for the payment of the 
expenses of the Legislative Assembly " (Session Laws, p. 85). 

This passed the Council, notwithstanding the veto, by a 
vote of 9 to 2, and the House by a vote of 19 to G. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 373 

An act of great importance to the inhabitants of Fond du 
Lac was passed at this session. In ISTovember, 1835, at Green 
Bay, a number of persons voluntarily associated themselves 
together under the name of tlie '"Fond du Lac" company, and 
purchased about two thousand acres of land embracing the 
area of the present city of Fond du Lac. The company laid 
out a town into lots and blocks and sold numerous lots, the 
conveyances being executed by the president of the com- 
pany. 

The act set forth at length the "articles of association" and 
recited that "ichereas doubts are entertained of the legality 
of such conveyance, and also as to the nature and degree of 
the estate which the members of an incorporated joint 
stock company may have therein; Therefore, for the purpose 
of perfecting the title of purchasers and to prevent difficulty 
and litigation in relation thereto, it was enacted that the 
stockholders of said association should be an incorporation 
with all appropriate corporate powers. 

An act was passed to repeal the act of December 2d, 1836, 
"to incorporate the stockholders of the Bank of Mineral 
Point." 

On the 10th of January, Alex. Mitchell, secretary of the 
Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company, in response 
to a resolution of the Council, submitted a statement sworn 
to by him, showing the financial condition of that corpo- 
ration. 

The statement gave the assets at $299,893.31 and the lia- 
bilities, exclusive of capital stock, at $75,418.31 of which 
634,028, were one, three and five dollar evidences of debt 
issued and outstanding (currency). 

At the fall term of the Circuit Court for Brown county, 
held by Judge Miller, in a proceeding commenced by the 
Attorney General, the charter of the Bank of Wisconsin 
was vacated. 

The provisions of the act of February 19, 1841, "to incor- 
porate the Western Mutual Fire Insurance Company, at 
Prairie du Chien and the Howard Fire Insurance Company 
of Brown county," not having been complied with, another 
act was passed declaring that said act was revived and con- 
tinued in force. 

Divorces were for the first time in the history of Wiscon- 
sin legislation refused to be granted. 



374 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A brief but important act in the interest of humanity was 
passed in these words : 

" That so much of any law of this Territory as authorizes the issuing an execution 
against the body of the defendant, in any civil cause, excepting in action of trespass or 
tort, is hereby repealed." 

An act was passed "to incorporate the Fox River Im- 
provement Company." 

The following special acts were passed authorizing the 
building and maintaining of dams. 

By Asa Clark, at the outlet of Pewaukee Lake. 

By D. G. Kendall and Gilmore Kendall and their asso- 
ciates, across the Rock River, in sections two and eleven in 
town six, range fourteen, in Jefferson county. 

By Oliver C. Hubbard and his associates, across the 
Manitowoc River, on section twenty-three, town nineteen, 
range twenty-three, in Manitowoc county. 

By Lucius I. Barber and Enoch G. Darling and their 
associates across Rock River, on section eleven, town six, 
range fourteen, in Jefferson county. 

By George Lurwick and his associates, across the Oconto 
River, on section twenty-four, town twenty-eight, range 
twenty-one. 

Special acts were passed authorizing the kec^ping and 
maintaining two ferries : 

One by Webster Stanley, across Fox River, on section 
twenty-three, town eigteen, range sixteen east — the site of 
the present city of Oshkosh. 

The other by Christopher Carr, across the Mississippi 
River, within the military reserve of Fort Snelling, about one 
mile above the mouth of St. Peters River. This ferry site is 
now in the State of Minnesota. 

Besides the act to incorporate the Janesville Bridge Com- 
pany, passed over the Governor's veto, two acts for the erec- 
tion of bridges v/ere passed and approved by the Governor ; 
one to incorporate the Beloit and Rock River Bridge Com- 
pany, and " an act to authorize James H. Rogers and others 
to construct, at their own expense, a free floating bridge 
across the Milwaukee River." 

The annual demand for the appointment by law of com- 
missioners to locate Territorial roads, existed in an undi- 
minished degree, and the location of the following Territo- 
rial roads was provided for : 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 375 

From Mineral Point to Milwaukee. 

From Menomonee Mills, in Crawford county, to Dacotah, 
in St. Croix county. 

From Eock Eiver, in section 24, town 11, range 15, by Clos- 
son's settlement, in Dodge county, to Dickason's Mills, in 
Portage county. 

From Prairie Village, in Milwaukee county, to Fort At- 
kinson, in Jefferson county. 

From Fond du Lac to intersect Territorial road from De- 
pere to Knapp's Ferry, crossing Fox River at or near Osh- 
kosh. 

From the Wisconsin River, opposite Helena, to the Dells 
of the Wisconsin River. 

From the Fox River, opposite Green Bay, to the Wiscon- 
sin River between Plover Portage and Big Bull Falls. 

From Beloit, in Rock county, to Monroe, in Green county. 

From Platteville, in Grant county, via New^ Diggings and 
White Oak Springs, in Iowa county, and thence to the State 
line. 

From Belmont, in Iowa county, to a point on the Missis- 
sippi River in Grant county, opposite Dubuque. 

From Sauk Prairie, in Sauk county, via Arena and Hicox's 
Mills, to the military road. 

From Watertown, in Dodge county, to Vf ashara, in Dodge 
county. 

From Whitewater, in Walworth county, to Monroe, in 
Green county. 

From Prairie du Sauk, in Sauk county, via Helena and 
Hicox's Mills, to the military road. 

On the assembling of the Legislative Assembly an accri- 
monious controversy was in existence as to who was lawful 
Treasurer of the Territory. The matter was investigated 
by a committee of the House of Representatives, with 
power to send for persons and papers and examine witnesses 
on oath, from whose report the following facts appear: 

That on the 17th of December, 1839, Robert L. Reaji was 
duly appointed Treasurer for the term of two years, and 
that under the law he would hold his office until his succes- 
sor was lawfully appointed. 

The office being created by the laws of the Territory, the 
incumbent was not subject to removal by the Governor. 

That on the 3d of September, 1841, Gov. Doty, assuming 



376 HISTORY OF THE TEERITOEY OF WISCONSIN. 

that the office was vacant for the alleged reason that Mr. 
Ream had not filed his official bond, appointed James Mor- 
rison treasurer. 

That, in fact, Mr. R:^:am executed his official bond, which 
was approved by the Governor on the 6th of January, 1840, 
and took the oath of office, and performed all that the law 
required to constitute him the legal Treasurer. 

That after the appointment of Mr. Morrison, Mr. Ream 
refused to surrender the official books and papers in his 
possession, and continued such refusal after two years from 
the date of his appointment, claiming that his successor had 
not been legally appointed. 

Mr. Morrison was afterwards nominated by the Gov- 
ernor, and the nomination was confirmed on the 24th of 
January, 1842. 

The principal importance of this controversy was the 
possession of the funds of the Territory, and particularly 
the sum of $1,758.28 which had been paid into the treasury 
of the United States by J. D. Doty as treasurer of the com- 
missioner of public buildings, which he claimed to be the 
balance in his hands of the funds received by him from the 
United States of the $40,000 appropriated by Congress for 
the public buildings. 

This sum was received by Mr. Morrison about the 1st of 
January, 1840, and under the law was applicable alone to 
payments for the completion of the Capitol. 

At the meeting of the Legislative Assembly the Capitol 
was not yet completed even to the extent required by the 
contract made under the act passed at the previous session; 
but it was far better adapted to the necessities and even the 
convenience of the legislators than it had before been. 

On the 7th of January the commissioner of public build- 
ings — N. C. Prentiss — submitted his report to the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. 

It stated that in pursuance of the act of February 19, 
1841, he let a contract on the 27th of April to Daniel Bax- 
ter for seven thousand dollars for the completion of the 
Capitol by the 1st of December, 1841. It states that the work 
is not completed and shows the progress which had been 
made and expresses the opinion that the balance of one 
thousand dollars of the fund applicable to the payment for 
the work, remaining in the hands of the treasurer is suffi- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 377 

cient protection to the Territory for the completion of the 
contract. 

In relation to the pending suits in favor of the Territory, 
one against J. D. Doty, J. F. O'Neill and A. A. Bird, the 
other against James Morrison and his sureties, the commis- 
sioner stated the reasons which had prevented their 
being brought to trial. 

John Y. Smith was elected by the two houses on the 18th 
of February commissioner of public buildings, as the suc- 
cessor of Mr. Prentiss. 

Two acts were passed by both branches of the Legislative 
Assembly, having for their object the completion of the 
Capitol and the paj^ment of the contractor, which were pre- 
sented to the Governor in the forenoon of the day before the 
adjournment and retained by him, neither of which were 
approved by him or returned with his objections. He after- 
wards caused to be published in the newspapers a statement 
of his objections to the acts, which he was prevented by 
want of time from sending to the House of Representatives, 
where they originated. 

One of these acts extended the time for the completion of 
the Capitol until November 1, 1842, and the other directed 
the Treasurer to pay for the work out of whatever moneys 
were in his hands or should come to his possession, of the 
money donated by Congress for the purpose of erecting the 
Capitol — except $250 — provided the sum paid by the 
Treasurer should not exceed Sl,750. 

The approval of these two acts by the Governor would 
seem to have placed the completion of the Capitol at an 
early day beyond peradventure, while the failure of the 
Governor to approve them created great embarrassment in 
the consummation of that desirable result. 

In a few days after the commissioner — Mr. Smith — was 
elected, he took possession of the Capitol and made efforts to 
induce Baxter to proceed with its completion. The dome 
was in a sad condition, leaking very badly, and the rains 
were seriously injuring the interior of the building. The 
contractor was willing to proceed with the work if funds 
for the purpose could be furnished him. 

The commissioner applied to the Treasurer for the small 

sum of $100 to repair the dor^-^, but was unable to obtain it. 

The Treasurer refused to consent to pay any part of the 

funds in his hands applicable to the completion of tiie Capi- 



378 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

to] without the approval of the Governor. The Governor re- 
fused to give any such approval except upon one condition, 
which was, that the suits pending against the commission- 
ers and the Treasurer and his sureties should be discontin- 
ued. 
The coliimissioner in his report says: 

"He (the Governor) admitted that finishing the Capitol and settling the suits had no 
necessary connection, but said he thought the whole matter had better be settled together; 
and in this position he remained invincible." 

The commissioner submitted this proposition: 

"That the defendants should pay the costs of the suits and five thousand dollars in Terri- 
torial liabilities in addition to the $1,758.38, in the treasiuy." 

The proposition was rejected. 
The commissioner said: 

"For the Territory to be conipelled by an executive usurpation of her treasury, to aban- 
don a just claim, was what your commissioner could by no means consent to, but was of 
the opmion that she had better see her Capitol sunk in the middle of the Fourth Lake than 
submit to terms so imjust and humiliating." 

The only remaining resource of the commissioner was to 
prevail upon the contractor to raise the means from his pri- 
vate resources, and finish the building complete before the 
meeting of the Legislature. In this he was in some degree 
successful. The dome and roof were put in such condition 
as to prevent leaking and such other work was done as 
seemed indispensable. 

Previous to the April term of court in Walworth county, 
the counsel for the Territory, at the solicitation of the de- 
fendant's counsel, consented to a continuance of the Terri- 
torial suits, upon their agreement to a peremptory trial at 
the fall term. At the October term the cases were reached, 
and after a series of lengthy arguments, the suits against 
Morrison were withdrawn on account of a defect in 
the declaration. In the other suit it was thought advis- 
able to amend the declaration which involved the continu- 
ance of the suit. 

" No question " (the commissioner said in his report) " has as yet been decided, which at 
all militates against the right of the Territory to recover heavy judgments against the de- 
fendants. These judgments, however, can never be reached while the court is confined to 
one week at a session." 

The Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution approved 
January 21, 1842, 

" That the Legislature of the State of New York be requested to abolish all toll, imposed 
by the laws or canal regulations of that state upon the transportation of pig and bar lead 
through the Erie canal on its passage eastward." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 371) 

The policy of the United States Government which had 
been adopted as early as 1S07 of leasing the lead mines, con- 
tinued to be enforced for more than ten years after the dis- 
covery of the lead deposits of the Upper Mississippi. So 
long as the title of the entire domain in which these mines 
were situated was in the United States, the system worked 
without much friction or dissatisfaction. But so soon as a 
portion of the lands were sold, and lead mines were dis- 
covered upon the lands of individuals, there arose an ine- 
quality in the condition of those who were working upon 
government lease and paying rents, and those working on 
other lands who paid no rents. 

This condition of things resulted in a practical abandon- 
ment by the government in 1834 of the policy of leasing the' 
lead mines and it was not attempted to be revived until 1S4-3. 

The matter had always been in charge of the ordnance 
bureau of the war department, and an officer of the regular 
army detailed to take charge of the business. But in 1841 
in some manner, a civilian named John Flanigan had pro- 
cured himself appointed " Superintendent of the United 
States Lead Mines," and opened an office at Galena. By the 
terms of his appointment he was to be entitled to ten per 
cent, of all such collections as he might make, besides his 
salary. 

He assumed that all lands containing lead ore had been 
reserved from sale, and the sale by the government of any 
tract upon which known deposits existed at the time of the 
sale was void, and that all the lead mines, as well those upon 
lands which had been purchased by individuals as upon 
unsold lands, were subject to be leased. 

These pretensions and assumptions of this " Superintend- 
ent" would be harmless if they had not been sanctioned by 
the officials from whom he derived his pretended authority. 
But the Ordnance Bureau, the Commissioner of the General 
Land Office, the Secretary of War, and even the President 
ratified and approved his acts in proposing to grant leases 
of lead mines without regard to the rights of individuals, 
acquired by their purchase from the Government. 

This " Superintendent" issued, and caused to be generally 
published, a "notice to miners," that on the 15th of Febru- 
ary, 1842, he would be prepared at his office, in Galena, to 
grant leases for the lead mines of the United States in the 
State of Illinois and Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa. 



380 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, 

On the 10th of January Mr, Strong offered a resolution in 
the Council, reciting this " notice," and that, whereas, there 
was reason to believe that the " Superintendent" intended to 
lease all lands containing lead mines, whether the same had 
been entered or not. Therefore — 

'" That a select committee be appointed, with instructions to prepare a memorial to the 
Secretary of War, asking him to rescind any instructions that may have emanated from 
his department, or any bureau thereof, authorizing the said Superintendent to lease any 
lead mines in this Territory." 

The resolution was adopted, and Messrs, Strong, Vine- 
yard, and RouNTREE appointed the committee, which pre- 
sented the memorial in conformity with the instructions, 
which was adopted, 

^ The notice proved a great attraction to the miners of the 
country who were not owners of land, to the floating 
landless population, and to all affected with communistic 
notions; so that in October it was reported that the number 
of leases granted by the — 

" Superintendent up to that time was about 500, and averaged about twenty-five acres in 
extent, with five hands to each lease." 

On the other hand, the permanent, substantial population 
of the lead mines regarded the course pursued by the 
" Superintendent" as a gross outrage upon their rights, 
against which they were swift to enter their protest. 

Mr. Young, one of the Senators from Illinois, introduced 
a bill for the survey of the unsold mineral lands into ten 
acre lots, with the pre-emption right to occupants of them 
to purchase such lots. The bill failed to pass Congress. But 
at the opening of the next session the message of the Presi- 
dent contained this recommendation : 

" For several years angry contentions have grown out of tlie dispositions directed by 
law to be made of the mineral lands held by the government in several of the States. The 
government is constituted the landlord, and the citizens of the States wherein lie the lands, 
are its tenants. The relation is an imwise one and it would be much more conducive to the 
public interest that a sale of the lands should be made, than that they should remain in 
their present condition." 

Would that fidelity to the work in hand admitted the 
closing of this chapter of the events of 1842, without refer- 
ence to the most painful tragedy, growing out of personal 
conflict, which occurred during the existence of the Terri- 
torial government of Wisconsin. But it cannot be. The sad 
tale must be told ; and the truth presented regarding the ter- 
rible homicide by which in the Legislative Halls of the Ter- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1842. 381 

ritory, Charles C. P. Arndt, a member of the Council, was 
fatally shot by a fellow member, James R. Vineyard. 

The consideration of executive nominations to office was 
a matter which, in cases of contest, created a considerable 
degree of feeling. Mr. Arndt was a zealous partisan, and 
a faithful and devoted friend of Governor Doty, and with a 
single exception, gave his vote to advise and consent to all 
of the contested nominations of the Governor. Party alle- 
giance sat more lightly on Mr. Vineyard. Sometimes he 
voted for the questionable nominations, and sometimes 
against them, and it was generally thought by his fellow 
members that his votes were influenced more by policy than 
principle. 

The personal relations between Messrs. Arndt and Vine- 
yard had always during their acquaintance been of the 
most friendly character. 

At an early period of the session the Governor submitted 
the nomination of Enos S. Baker to be Sheriff of Grant 
county. 

On the 24th of January the consideration of the nomina- 
tion was on motion of Mr. Vineyard postponed until the 
5th of February, when it came up, and after a protracted 
discussion was rejected. 

On Monday, the 7th of February, Mr. Upham moved a re- 
consideration of the vote of the previous Saturday, by which 
the nomination was rejected. 

The motion was for the time laid on the table. 

On the 11th of February the Governor sent to the Council 
the following communication: 

"The nomination of Enos S. Baker, Esq,, to be Sheriff of Grant county being still before 
the Council on a motion to reconsider tlie vote of Saturday last, it is my duty to submit to 
the Council a paper which I have received in relation to that nomination, which is signed by 
nineteen members of the House of Representatives. 

"Executive Office, February 10, 1S42. "J. D. Doty." 

The paper thus submitted was dated February 7th and 
addressed to the Governor, the nineteen members who 
signed it being as nearly as possible divided between the 
political parties, and after giving the reasons of the signers 
at length, said in conclusion: 

"We cannot approbate the course that has been taken against Mr. Baker, and hoping that 
some portion of the Council at least who voted against him will, upon reflection, see the 
propriety of sustaining him, we earnestly request your Excellency to renominate Mr. 
Baker to the office of Sheriff of Grant County." 

It was said and is probable, that the feeling which 



382 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

prompted this paper influenced Mr. Upham to move the re- 
consideration. It is certain that an intense feeling in rela- 
tion to the nomination pervaded both houses and extended 
outside the Capitol. 

Soon after this communication from the Governor was 
received and on the same day, Mr. Arndt moved to take 
up the motion to reconsider, which motion was opposed by 
Mr. Vineyard. What then occurred is best described in 
the testimony of witnesses upon the preliminary examina- 
tion of Vineyard on the charge of murder. 

"J. H. Tweedy sworn: Tho difficulty grew out of a debate on motion to lay on the 
table the nomination of E. S. Baker. Mr. Abndt opposed it, because the gentleman from 
Grant (alluding to Mr. Vineyard, I suppose), 'had given the highest testimonials as to the 
character of the nominee.' I think, upon his making that remark, Mr. Vineyard turned 
partly round in his seat, and said it was a falsehood. Some words passed and order was 
restored. Soon after a motion to adjourn was made, and a division had thereon; and im- 
mediately after the members had arisen in the negative, before announcement by the 
chair, most of the members and by-staaders rose and I saw deceased and Mr. Vineyard, 
and I believe one or two others, close together at the corner of Mr. Vineyard's desk. Many 
words in a high key passed; heard deceased demand of Mr. Vineyard an explanation. 
Then Mr. Strong called aloud ' order,' twice; and the president arose and called the House 
to order. Vineyard and deceased were parted by one or two by-standers. Saw deceased 
then move about eight feet towards the fiz-e-place. He stood there, and Mr. Vineyard at 
his desk, until the chair announced an adjournment. Mr. Arndt then came up to Mr. 
Vineyard's desk. Mr. V. was standing at the corner of it. Deceased asked Mr. Vineyard 
if he imputed to him falsehood in his remarks. Mr. Vineyard answered ' yes,' or that 
' they were false,' I do not remember which. Think I then saw deceased strike at Mr. V's 
face, or forehead— they were about three feet apart. Rose to go to them. Did not see 
distinctly, but thought one or two blows had passed; then heard an explosion. Deceased 
partly reeled around and moved several steps towards the fireplace, with his hands on his 
breast. I believe next moment saw him in the arms of Blr. Deeking. I believe in about 
five minutes saw him die. He said nothing, and did not appear to be conscious of 
anything." 

"James Collins sworn: After Mr. Vineyard made the motion to postpone the nomina- 
tion, Mr. Arndt rose and opposed it and said something like this: 'He must oppose the 
motion of the gentleman from Grant for the reason that he M-asnot willing to give him an 
opportunity to introduce evidence to belie the statement he had before made on the floor.' 
I think at this time Vineyard arose for the purpose of explanation. Mr. Arndt did not 
give way, and both were speaking at the same time, and I saw Mr. Arndt wave his hand 
toward Mr. Vineyard and said, 'That difference will be accommodated at some other time.' 
They had some private conversation together, and I called to order. They separated. Be- 
fore the vote on the adjournment was announced I saw them together again. High words 
passed between them. Mr. Arndt then walked to the fire-place and Mr. Vineyard step- 
ped to his seat. I then paused for a short time, and announced the vote on adjournment 
and left my seat. Mr. Arndt approached Mr. Vineyard. High words again passed be- 
tween them, and I was reaching forward my hand to lay hold of Mr. ArnDt, when he 
struck Mr. Vineyard with his right hand. Mr. Vineyard seemed to recede a little, and I 
very soon heard the report of a pistol. I did not know who fired it at the moment, and 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 383 

supposed some one liad let off a pistol in attempting to draw it from his pocket. Arndt 
reeled around and soon fell. I then turned to Vineyard, and for the first time saw what 
I supposed to be a pistol in his hand. He had it clasped round the lock. I was of the im- 
pression and still am that it was a six-shooter pistol.- It is possible I may be mistaken. 
Some one called out 'arrest him!' He replied. 'I'm not going away.' I walked over with 
him to the American and left him in the hall or on the stoop." 

John H. Rountree, called for the defense, being sworn, 
testified as follows: 

" The deceased and Mr. ViNEY.-iRD have always manifested friendship for each other 
during the session. I have frequently seen them in 'each otner's room. I noticed them 
during the morning session standing before the fire in very friendly conversation. Each 
had an arm around the other's neck. I think this was during a call of the house. I have 
known Mr. Vineyard for fifteen or sixteen years ; intimately for fourteen or fifteen years. 
He has lived for fom-teen years within half a mile of me. I have ever esteemed him as a 
kind and benevolent man. I have never known any revengeful act in him, or disposition 
to seek revenge. He is very warm and ardent in hi- feelings. From my acquaintance with 
him I should say that he did not bear malice. He is excitable, but his passious soon sub- 
side, and kind feelings quickly return." 

The testimony of the other witnesses was substantially 
the same, all agreeing that the deceased was the assailing 
party, and that Vineyard was defending himself against 
the assault. 

He immediately surrendered himself to the sheriff and 
was committed to jail, where his wife remained with him 
until he was released. 

The next day the death of Mr. Arndt was announced in 
each house and appropriate resolutions were adopted in 
both. The body of the deceased was conveyed to his 
friends at Green Bay at the expense of the Legislative As- 
sembly, the members of which accompanied it in a body 
for several miles. 

At the next meeting of the Council on Monday the 14th, 
the President stated that he had received a communication 
on the subject of which there was doubt whether this body 
had any control. The communication is signed by James 
R. Vineyard, a member of the Council from the county of 
Grant, tendering his resignation of his seat in this body, 
and asked if it was the pleasure of the Council to receive 
for consideration the communication ? 

Mr. Strong requested that it be read. 

Mr. Brigham then moved that the communication be re- 
turned to its author without reading, which was agreed to. 

Mr. Brigham then, by leave, offered a preamble and reso- 
lution. 

The preamble recited the fatal shooting of Mr. Arndt, 



384 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

and that Vineyard was unworthy to be a member of the 
body, and therefore 

Resolved, That he be expelled and his seat declared vacant. 

Mr. Strong said he would cheerfully vote for the pre- 
amble, but could not vote for the resolution. He felt the 
deepest, the warmest indignation at the outrage which had 
been perpetrated and would unite with any member in 
expressing those feelings in any appropriate manner, but 
he could not bring his mind to the conclusion that the Coun- 
cil had any right to reject the resignation. He considered 
that every member, so long as he was such, had the control 
of his own seat, and that he could resign it or not, at his 
pleasure ; but as soon as he did resign it, the Council had no 
power to reject the resignation. His connection with the 
body had ceased, and they had no further control over it or 
him, not even the power to expel him, for he had no seat to 
be expelled from. 

The preamble was adopted unanimously and the resolu- 
tion by a vote of 10 to 1, all the members present voting in 
the affirmative except Mr. Strong, who called for the ayes 
and noes and voted against the resolution. 

About the 10th of March, Vineyard was taken from the 
jail at Madison to Mineral Point, by virtue of a writ of habeas 
corpus issued by Chief J ustice Dunn. A long and thorough 
examination was had, and all the facts connected with the 
tragedj^ fully exposed. The State was ably represented by 
M. M. Jackson, the Attorney General, and the defendant by 
Col. A. P. Field, who was assisted by Moses M. Strong, 
and after an exhaustive argument, the Chief Justice took 
the matter under consideration from Saturday until Monday, 
the 14th of March, when he decided that Vineyard should 
be admitted to bail in the sum of $10,000, for his appearance 
at the next term of the district court for Dane county. The 
bail was at once given by several of the most responsible 
and Avealthy citizens of Grant county. 

The court met at Madison May 9th, Hon. David Irvin 
presiding. The grand jury was about to be impaneled 
when the counsel for Vineyard objected to Ebenezer Brig- 
ham being sworn upon the jury for the reason that he had 
been recognized as a witness in the Vineyard case. The 
objection was sustained by the court and Mr. Brigham ex- 
cluded. The counsel for Vineyard then attempted to ex- 
clude for cause others of the panel from being sworn as 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1813. 385 

grand jurors for the reason that they had expressed opinions, 
but were not sustained by the court. 

The jury on the 13th May returned a bill for manslaughter, 
the defendant entered into new bonds, and the cause was 
adjourned until the next term. 

The venue was afterwards changed to Green county on 
the affidavit of the defendant of prejudice of the people of 
Dane county, and in October, 1843, he was acquitted by ver- 
dict of the jury. 

The Legislative Assembly, after taking a recess from 
December 27th to January 7th, adjourned sine die on the 
19th of February, being seventy-six days from the first to 
the last day of the session. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1843. 

There was no subject in relation to which the inhabitants 
of Wisconsin in the earlier years of its Territorial existence, 
had looked to Congress for aid with as great anxiety, as 
they had to the protection of the infant commerce of Lake 
Michigan. Not a session of the Legislature had passed from 
183G to 1842 that a memorial was not sent to Congress ask- 
ing appropriations for harbors of refuge at the more import- 
ant ports on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. These 
memorials were supplemented by numerous petitions from 
the people, but until 1843, all efforts to obtain such appropri- 
ations had been unavailing, except that on the 4th day of 
July, 183G, the day on which the act organizing the Terri- 
tory took effect, an act making appropriations for harbors 
was approved which contained an appropriation of four 
hundred dollars 

"For tlie survey of the inoutli of Jlilwaukee river, to determine the practicability of 
making a harbor by deepening tlie cliaunel." 

The same act appropriated twenty thousand dollars for a 
harbor at Michigan City and the same sum for a pier or 
breakwater at St. Joseph, which were the only appropria- 
tions for Lake Michigan. 
25 



386 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Appropriations were also made in 1837 and in 1838, not 
only for Michigan City and St. Joseph, but also for Chicago, 
which were the only points on either shore of Lake Michi- 
gan for which any appropriation was made until 1843. 

During the years 1830, '40, '41 and '42, the policy of the 

government of making appropriations for the improvements 

of rivers and harbors appears to have been entirely sus- 
pended. 

Such suspensions also continued during the year 1843 as 

to all the rivers and harbors in the United States, except 

that an act 

'"For the protection of commerce on Lake Michigan," was passed which appropriated 
thirty thousand dollars "for the coQStruction of a harbor at the most suitable situation at or 
near Milwaukee," and enacted that before the money should be expended "the corps of top- 
ographical engineers shall select from actual examination and survey the point of loca- 
tion of said harbor." 

The same act provided for the survey and selection of 
"the most suitable site for a light house at or near South- 
port" (now Kenosha). 

It also contained an appropriation of twenty-five thou- 
sand dollars for each of the harbors of Chicago and St. 
Joseph. 

Two separate appropriation bills for the civil and diplo- 
matic expenses of goverment were passed at the session of 
Congress for 1842-3, one approved December 24, 1842, for the 
half calendar year ending June 30, 1843. The other for 
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1844, approved March 3, 1843. 

The first appropriated for compensation for the Gov- 
ernor, judges and secretary for the half year and for con- 
tingent expenses, the sum of four thousand seven hundred 
and twenty-five dollars. The other for the same objects 
for a full fiscal year, the sum of nine thousand four hun- 
dred and fifty dollars. 

The first appropriated — 

"For compensation and mileage of the members of the Legislative Assembly, pay of 
officers, printing, stationery, fuel, furniture and other incidental and miscellaneous objects, 
nineteen thousand two hundred and seventy-five dollars." 

for the half calendar year. 

The other appropriated for the same objects and for post- 
age, the sum of seventeen thousand two hundred and sev- 
enty-five dollars for the full fiscal year. 

Another act was passed at this session of Congress con- 
ferring upon the people further powers of self-government, 
by authorizing the Legislature — 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. yg? 

"To provide by law for the election or appointment of sheriffs, judges of probate, jus- 
tices of the peace and county surveyors." 

These offices were under the organic act appointable by 
the Governor and Council. 
The second section of this act prescribed— 

"That the members of both houses of the Legislative Assembly shall, upon the expiration 
of the terms of service for which the present members have been elected, be hereafter 
elected to serve for the same terms of service as that for which the members of the Legis- 
lative Assembly in Iowa are now elected." 

Such "terms of service" in Iowa were two years for mem- 
bers of the Council and one year for members of the 
House of Representatives. 

Another act was passed at this session of much local im- 
portance, by which the township of land on the east side of 
Winnebago Lake, which was reserved for the use of the 
Stockbridge tribe of Indians, might be partitioned and 
divided among the different individuals composing said 
tribe, and might be held by them separately and severally 
in fee simple. 

The act prescribed particularly the mode of making the 
partition by commissioners to be elected by themselves 
under the supervision of a United States officer. 

The fourth Legislative Assembly convened at Madison on 
the fifth day of December, 1843 — the day prescribed by 
law — for the purpose of holding its first session. 

The members of both houses had been elected at the pre- 
ceding September election upon a new apportionment, and 
there was an almost entire change of membership in both 
Houses. 

In the Council only three members had been members of 
the preceding Council. These were Messrs. Martin of 
Brown county, Rountree of Grant, and Strong of Iowa. 
Five others had been members of the House of Representa- 
tives the preceding year. These were Messrs. Whiton of 
Rock, Barber of Jefferson, Dewey of Grant, La'Chappel 
of Crawford, and Newland of Milwaukee, the last of whom 
had represented Iowa county, was the speaker and on the 
adjournment of the previous session had removed to Mil- 
waukee county where he was elected to the Council. The 
other five members were Messes. Heath and Hugunin of 
Racine, Baker of Walworth, Crocker and White of Mil- 
waukee, neither of whom had previously been members of 
the Legislature. 



388 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

All the members of the Council were present on the first 
day of the session^ except Messrs, Heath and Hugunin, who 
did not take their seats until the 6th of March. 

The Council was organized by the election of Moses M. 
Strong, President; John V. Ingersoll, Secretary; and 
Charles E. Brown. Sergeant-at-Arms. 

The House of Representatives was composed of the 
following members : 

Brown and the counties attached — Albert G. Ellis, 
Mason C. Darling, and David Agry. 

Craivford and St. Croix — John H. Manahan. 

Dane, Dodge, Gi^een, Jeffersoii, and Sauk — Isaac H. Pal- 
mer, Lyman Crossman and Robert Masters. 

Grant — Franklin Z. Hicks, Alonzo Platt and Glen- 
dower M. Price. 

loiva — Robert M. Long, Moses Meeker, and William S» 
Hamilton. 

Milwaukee and Washington — Andrew E. Elmore, Ben- 
jamin HuNKiNs, Thomas H. Olin, Jonathan Parsons, Jared 
Thompson, and George H. Walker. 

Racine — Philander Judson, John T. Trow^bridge, and 
Peter Van Vleit. 

Rock and Walworth — John Hopkins, James Tripp, John 
M, Capron, and William A. Bartlett. 

Of these, Messrs. Ellis and Darling had been members 
of the preceding Legislature; Mr. Hamilton was elected, in 
18;)5, a member of the Michigan Legislature, which met at 
Green Bay in January, 1836, while all the others were with- 
out legislative experience. 

All the members were present at the December session ex- 
cept Messrs. Judson and Trowbridge, who did not take 
their seats until the 30th of January, and Mr. Agry, who 
took his seat on the 4th of February, and Messrs. Bartlett 
and Van Vliet, who took their seats on the 6th of March. 

The House was organized by the election of Albert G. 
Ell'is, Speaker, John Catlin, Chief Clerk, and William S. 
Anderson, Sergeant-at-Arms. 

Each house was notified of the organization of the other. 

A joint committee of two from each house was then ap- 
pointed to wait on the Governor and inform him that tha 
two houses were organized pro tempore and ready to receive 
any communication he might have to make to them. 

The committee consisted of Messrs. Martin and Whiton 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 389 

on the part of the Council, and Messrs. Walker and Hop- 
kins on the part of the House. 

The joint committee submitted a report to each house, on 
the first day of the session — 

" That they have discharged the duty assigned them, and that the Governor informed 
the committee that, 'not conceiving that the Legislative Assembly had authority by law 
to meet at the present time, he had no communication to make to them.' " 

On the same day a resokition was introduced by Dr. Dar- 
ling, which on the next day was agreed upon by both 
houses, in the following words: 

"■Resolved by the Council and House of Eejjresentatives : that the report of the joint 
committee appointed to wait upon his Excellency the (4overnor, and inform him that the 
two houses were organized pro temijore, and ready to receive any communication he 
might have to make to them, be i-ef erred to a joint committee, consisting of three mem- 
bers of each house, to report whether thei-e is any valid objection to the Legislative 
Assembly holding its annual session at this time; whether it is expedient to adjourn the 
session of said Legislative Assembly to some other day; whether the Legislative Assembly 
ought to take an.y, and if any, what action, expressive of their views relative to the course 
pursued by the executive, as exhibited in said report; and generally to report as they may 
think the circumstances of the case may requu-e in relation to the said report of the said 
joint committee." 

The committee consisted of Messrs. Crocker, Martin 
and La'Chappelle on the part of the Council, and Messrs. 
Darling, Tripp and Meeker on the part of the House. 

The Governor did iiot, in his response to the committee 
appointed to wait on him, give any reasons why he thought 
the Legislative Assembly had no right to meet at that time 
or why he had no communication to make to them. But 
soon after the report of the joint committee, of which Col. 
Crocker was chairman, there appeared in the newspapers 
a paper addressed to the members elect of the Legislative 
Assembly, over the signature of the Governor, and which 
he adopted as his own, in a communication to the two 
houses of Congress. 

It was said in the newspapers accompanying this paper, 
that it was prepared by Gov. Doty, with the intention of 
submitting it to the members, if they called upon the execu- 
tive, as had been the custom to administer to them the oath 
of office. 

Such a custom had to some extent prevailed, but not uni- 
formly, and the newly elected members, upon assembling, 
ascertained that the Governor was not authorized by law 
to administer oaths, and took the oath of office before one of 
the Judges of the Supreme Court. 



390 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

In justice to the Governor, with reference to this import- 
ant subject, the paper is given at length : 

To THE Members Elect of the Legislative Assembly of Wiskonsan: 

The acts of Congress provide, 

1st. That " No session " [of the Assembly] " in any year shall exceed the term of seventy- 
five days." 

2d. That "The Legislative Assembly of no Territory shall hereafter, in any instance, or 
under any pretext whatever, exceed the amount appropriated by Congress for its annual 
expenses." 

3d. That "No session of the Legislature of a Territory shall be held until an appropria- 
tion for its expenses shall have been made." 

The Territorial act authorizing "a regular session" to be held on the first Monday of 
December annually, if it was ever valid, was suspended or annulled by these acts and by 
the failure of Congress to make an appropriation after the passage of the latter act. 

The Legislature held a session in the year 1843, which terminated on the nineteenth day 
of February last. 

On the eighteenth day of May following Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars 
for the expenses of the Assembly during the year 1842, which sum was drawn from the 
Treasury in June last and expended according to the direction of the act of the Assembly 
of the 19th of February, to defray the expenses of a session held in the year 1842. 

The whole of the appropriation for the year 1841 having been thus expended, and no 
additional appropriation made, no session can now be held under the authority of the laws 
of the United States, or indeed without violating them. If a session is held it must be 
at the expense of the people of the Territory; and ail laws passed by an imauthorized and 
prohibited Assembly would be void and of no effect. 

It is believed that a session is neither expected nor desired at this time by the people; 
and that as there is no money to pay the expenses, there ought to be no session. 

Wiskonsan is yet under a Terrritorial form of government , and while this is continued by 
the people, the acts of Congress ai'e supreme over this government and over the people 
and must be obeyed. 

When a session of the Assembly has reached the amount appropriated for the year it 
must terminate; and no new session can coumaence, or expense be incurred, until an ap- 
propriation has been made. 

If the expenses of an miauthorized session are not paid by Congress, they must be paid 
by the people of the Territory. This would greatly increase the taxes, without any corre- 
sponding benefit to the country; for it is believed to be the sentiment of the tax -paying 
part of the community that there has been already too much legislation; and that the 
taxes now levied are excessive and ought to be diminished. 

To protect the people therefore from further taxation, and to maintain their right to a 

strict and economical administration of this government, and to preserve the authority of 

the laws of the United States and avoid the possibility of an increase of the public debt, 

it is deemed to be the duty of the Executive to decline meeting the members elect of the 

Legislature, to hold a session, until an appropriation shall have been made for its expenses 

by Congress. 

J. D. Doty. 
Madison, Wiskonsan, December 5, 1842. 

This paper was accompanied by some correspondence be- 
tween the Governor and the Secretary of tlie Treasury, and 
between the Governor and the Secretary of the Territory, 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 391 

the material part of which is the statement of the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, bearing date November 21, 1842. 

" That the amount appropriated by the act of Congress of the 18th day of May, 1843, for 
the compensation of members and expenses, etc., of the Legislative Assembly of the Terri- 
tory of Wiskonsan, having been paid to A. P. Field, Esq., the Secretary of the Territory, no 
further amount can be expected, until an appropriation for this object is made at the 
approaching session of Congress." 

And also the statement of Col. Field, Secretary of the 
Territory, under date of November 25, 1842, that 

"The appropriation of twenty thousand dollars made by Congress in May last to which 
you alluded has been received and applied by me to the payment of the liabilities incurred 
by the last Legislature." 

The report of the joint committee of three from each house 
was unanimous, and was signed by all the six members of the 
committee. It was presented on the 8th day of May in the 
Council by Col. Crockek, and in the House by Dr. Darling, 
and is very exhaustive of the questions at issue between the 
Governor and the Legislature. Its great length precludes 
its insertion entire but such extracts are given as present 
the substance of the views of the committee. 

In reference to the inquiry whether there is any law of 
Congress or of this Territory which would prevent the hold- 
ing of a session of the Legislature at this time, the commit- 
tee say: 

"The law of Congress organizing the Territory provides that 'the time, place and manner of 
holding and conducting all elections by the people and the apportionment of the represen- 
tation in the several counties to the CouncU and House of Representatives according to the 
population shall be prescribed by law, as well as the day of the annual commencement of 
the session of the Lecjislaiive Assembly'' (organic act, section i). Accordingly the Legislative 
Assembly have 'jirescribed by lav)' that 'the regular sessions of the Legislative Assembly 
shall commence on the first Monday of December, in each and every year.' (R. S. page 157.)" 

In pursuance of that law the members of the Council and House of Representatives did 
meet in their respective halls at the Capitol, on the fu'st Monday of December, 1813, and 
commenced the session of the Legislative Assembly, by organizing their respective houses 
in the usual manner. 

In conformity to the long established usage, they adopted a joint resolution appointing a 
committee to wait upon the Governor and inform him of the organization of the two houses 
and that they were ready to receive any communication he might have to make to them. 
To this customary message of courtesy to a co-ordinate branch of the Legislature the Gov- 
ernor made the following reply: 'Not conceiving that the Legislative Assembly had 
authority by law to meet at the present time, he had no communication to make to them.' 

He refuses to make any communication to the Legislature becausehe says he conceives 
they have no authority to meet at the present time. 

The Governor, no doubt with some object in view, has seen fit to withhold from the Leg- 
islature and the public his reasons for so extraordinary a course of conduct. And as your 
committee can imagine no other, they have presumed that if the Legislative Assembly 



G92 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

has not the authority by law to meet at the present time, the only reason is the one that 
rumor and the public press has assigned viz.: that in a law passed at the last session of 
Congress occurs the following paragraph: 'No session of the Legislature of a territory 
shall be held until the appropriation for its expenses shall have been made.' 

" The act of Congress 'making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of 
the Government for the year 1842,'' approved May 18, 1842, contains the usual appropria- 
tion for the payment of the expenses of the annual session of the Legislative Assembly 

of the Territory of Wisconsin. The amount thus appropriated is $20,000. 

****** ***** ** 

" The title of the act last referred to is in itself convincing proof to your committee, 
that the amount appropriated was for the express purpose of defraying the expenses of 
the session which we are now holding; but to remove all doubt, the committee will briefly 
refer to the several appropriations made by Congress for defraying the exjjenses of the 
Legislature of this Territory. 

" The appropriation for the first session of the Legislative Assembly, which was held iu 
the fall of 1836, was but nine thou.sand dollars, the estimate being predicated upon the 
usual expenses of the Territorial Legislature of Michigan, a body of but thu-teen members. 
To meet the deficiency caused by this inadequate appropriation. Congress, by the act of 
3d of March, 1837, appropriated the further sum of $15,765.10 'for the payment of arrear- 
ages' due for the expenses of the first Legislative Assembly, By the same act was appro- 
priated the further sum of S36,'i65 for the expenses of the second session of the first Legis- 
lative Assembly. 

By the act of Cth of April, 1838, $25,000 were appropriated for the first session and by the 
act of 3d March, 1839, $25,000 for the second session of the second Legislative Assembly. 
The act of the 8th May, 1840, appropriated $34,075 for the fu-st session, and the act of 3d 
March, 1841, |20,000 for the second session of the Legislative Assembly. And the act of 18th 
May, 1842, appropriates $20,000 for the expense of the present, being the first session of the 
fourth Legislative Assembly. 

If it be supposed that the $20,0C0 last appropriated, were intended to meet the payment 
of arreai-ages, created by a deficiency in the appropriation of previous sessions of the 
Legislature, the impression will be removed by reference to another part of the same act, 
making an appropriation ' for the arrearages and expei.ses for the Legislative Assembly of 
the Teri-itory of Iowa.' An appixpriation for a similar purpose for Wisconsin, would have 
been expressed in like words. That territory was similarly situated with Wisconsin, the 
expenses of the Legi&lature exceeding the amount of appropriations, but the exact amount 
of the arrearages of the expenses of that Territory being known, a definite sum was appro- 
priated for their discharge. A portion of the arrearages of expenses of Wisconsin, con- 
sisting of disputed items, and the amovmt not being ascertained, no definite sum could be 
appropriated. It was attempted when the act making appropriations for the civil and 
diplomatic expenses of the government for the year 1842 (in which the above appropria- 
tion of $20,000 is included) was before the House of Representatives, to appropriate the 
further sum of $24,000 to cover the arrearages of expenses of our Legislature, for previ- 
ous years, but their extent not being known, as we have above stated, the last item was 
omitted, and the chairman of the committee of ways and means declaring his intention of 
introducing a bill for the purpose of providing for the payment of such arrearages as were 
chargeable to the Treasury of the United States. Accordingly, on the 29th day of August 
last Congress passed a law, ' for the settlement of certain accounts for the support of the 
government of the Territory of Wisconsin.' 

By this It. .v, no definite sum was appropriated, but the accounting officers of the Treas- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 393 

ury Department were directed to audit and settle those accounts. By the act of 18th May, 
1842, the sum of $27,125 was appropriated to defray the expenses of the Legislative Coun- 
cil of the Territory of Florida, and by the act of 29th August, the accounts and ari'earages 
of expenses of that Territory were directed to be audited and settled, in the same manner 
as those of the Territory of Wisconsin. 

Yet, so far as has come to the knowledge of your committee, no doubt has ever been en- 
tertained in either of the Territories of Iowa or Florida, but that their Legislatures have 
the undoubted right to hold their annual sessions without any fiu'ther act or appropriation 
by Congress. By reference to that part of the act of 18th May, making appropriations 
for the Territory of Iowa it will be seen that no part of the svmi appropriated for arrearages 
shall be used for any other purpose, than for the payment of those arrearages. Now if, as 
it is possible the Governor may suppose, the $20,000 last appr(jpriated, was 'for arrearages 
of expenses,' why was it not limited and restricted to that specific object as was done in 
the appropriation for Iowa ? 

No money shall be drawn from the Treasury of the United States, but in consequence of 
appropriations made by law, and in such law must be expressed the precise nature and ob- 
ject of such appropriation. And your committee believe that since the organization of the 
Government, no instance can be found, where Congress has made an appropriation for 
arrearages of expenses in any branch or department of the Government, unless it be so ex- 
pressed in the law making such appropriation. Had such been the object of the appropri- 
ation now in question, your committee can not but think it woidd have been so expressed. 

The mere fact that Congress has every year since the organization of oiu- Territory appro- 
priated what they thought would be a sufficient amount to defray the aimual expenses of 
the Legislature, previous to the holding of the annual session thereof, is conclusive evi- 
dence to your committee that the appropriation of $20,000 contained in the act of the 18th 
of May was intended to defray the expenses of the present session of the Legislature. But 
if any doubt could exist it would be removed by reference to the act of the 29th of August, 
the object and intention of which was to pay and discharge all arrearages of expenses of 
the Legislature of Wisconsin, owing to the Legislature having incurred an annual debt 
greater than the annual appropriations of Congress. 

The object of the act last referred to was to relieve the Territory from its pecuniary 
embarrassments, not to crush it by depriving it of tlie invaluable privileges of Legis- 
lation. 

It cannot be supposed by any honest and rational mind, that it was the intention of Con- 
gress to deprive the people of Wisconsin of all the rights of Legislation, or that having 
failed to include— as it is possible the Governor may suppose — an appropriation to defray 
the expenses of the present Legislature, in the usual law, they would afterwards, on the 
last day of the session pass another law prohibiting a session of the Legislature because 
they had failed or neglected to make such appropriation. In looking at the usual course 
of Congress in defraying the expenses of our Legislature, no doubt exists in the minds of 
your committee that in passing the act of the 29th of August it was their belief that the 
appropriation of $20,000 previously made was to cover the expenses of the present 
Legislature. 

By the 1 1th section of the Organic Act, there is 'to be appropriated annually a suflBclent 
sum to defray the expenses of the Legislative Assembly,' and b5^ the act of the Territory 
already quoted, 'the regular session of the Legislative Assembly shall commence on the 
first Monday of December in each and every year.' 

Tliese acts are plain, explicit and unrepealed, and if it be true that Congress have not 
'appropriated a7inuaUy a .'sufficient sum to defray the expenses of the Legislative A.s- 
sembly,' and if true, that for that reason 'the regular session of the Legislative Assembly' 



394 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

cannot 'convene on the first Monday of December,' then are both those laws to that extent 
repealed. But can it be believed that Congress ever intended by, to say the most of it, so 
strained and remote an inference, to repeal laws which lay at the very foundation of our 
pohtical existence ? Such a construction would be an insult to the understanding and the 
good faith of the Congress of the United States. 

But it is said that whatever may have been the intention of Congress in making the ap- 
propriation, it has in point of fact been received by the Secretary of the Territory and 
paid out by him in defraying the expenses of the last session of the Legislative Assembly. 

Assuming such to be the fact, does it affect in any degree our right to sit as a Legislative 
Assembly ? It must be borne in mind that the restriction upon our Legislative powers 
arises only from the want of an appropriation^ not for the want of money in the Treasury 
of the United States, nor from the misapplication of that money to any other purpose, 
nor even the refusal of the officers of the Treasury Department to pay it out when made» 
nor from any circumstances whatever, except the want of an appropriation. 

If the appropriation has been made we have clearly the right to hold a session of 
the Legislature. 

************* 

"If, as we contend, the appropriation has been made, there was on the 29th of August 
last in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of Wisconsin at least §10,000, being 
the amount of the appropriation and a sufficient sum to defray arrearages of expenses of 
former sessions; and if the sum of $20,000 has been misapplied in the payment of arrear- 
ages, it leaves an equal amount in the Treasury to be applied as originally intended, to 
defray the expenses of the present session. 

****** * »«: **«* 

" In examining this part of the subject referred to us in every light in which it has pre- 
sented itself to our minds, we can not hesitate to give it as our decided opinion, that there 
is no valid objection to the Legislative Assembly holding its annual session at the present 
time, by reason of no appropriation having been made by Congress.'''' 

The committee further reported that they were — 

" Aware that there are many important subjects, deeply affecting the interests of the 
people, upon which they are now anxiously desiring legislative action. 

" *A few of the most important of these' were stated to be: 

"The acts and condition of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company. 

" The extension of the term of court in Walworth county, in which the suits in favor 
of the Territory against the Governor as a public defaulter, were pending; 

" The re-election of the commissioner of public buildings, who is the agent of the Terri 
tory in conducting those suits; 

" The unfinished and exposed condition of the Capitol, and the securing of the money 
appropriated for its completion; and, 

'' Many other subjects constantly occurring in a newly settled and rapidly growing 
country." 

The committee add: " Yet, notwithstanding this pressing necessity, and the important 
subjects ready to be brought before the Legislature, your committee are constrained by a 
sense of duty, to report that, in their opinion, it is inexpedient to hold a session of the Leg- 
islatiu-e at the present time. To this conclusion your committee are forced by the action 
of the Governor himself, who, in violation of all law, has refused, for reasons which may 
be apparent, to hold commimication with the Legislature. Your committee have not 
thought it necessary to enter upon a discussion of the question whether the Legislature 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 395 

can enacc laws withcjut the concurrence of the Governor, but inasmuch as serious doubts, 
are entertained upon this subject, they are led to the conclusion above stated. 

" The Legislature have done all that the law. duty to their constituents, or courtesy to 
the Governor, a co-ordinate branch of the Legislature, have required. If consequences 
injurious to the Territory result from the course which we recommend, let the responsi- 
bility rest upon the head of him who invoked it." 

As to whether the Legislative Assembly ought to take 
any, and if any, what action, expressive of their views rela- 
tive to the course pursued by the executive, the committee 
say : 

" They can not but consider the conduct of the Governor, in refusing to meet the Legisla- 
ture, as extraordinary, unwarranted by any principle of reason or law, evincing a disposi- 
tion to bid defiance to the will of the people, and a total disregard of their interests. Such 
conduct deserves the reprobation of the Legislature, as it will most assuredly receive the 
condemnation of an injm'ed and insulted Territory. 

" Courtesy to the representatives of the people, similar to that extended by them to 
him, should have induced the Governor to have assigned, in respectful terms, his reasons 
for not meeting or recognizing the Legislature. These reasons he has withheld, and 
standing in an attitude independent of the will of the people he treats their representa- 
tives with insolence and contempt, and disregards the laws of the Territory which he is 
sworn to obey." 

The committee came to the conclusion that it was expedi- 
ent that the Legislature adjourn sine die, but recommended 
the adoption of a memorial to Congress, asking the passage 
of some law that would enable the Legislature to convene 
before the first Monday of December. 

Resolutions were reported in conformity with the views 
expressed in the report. 

No serious difference of opinion existed in either house, in 
relation to any of the views expressed by the committee, 
except as to whether it was expedient to adjourn sine die, or 
to some definite time so remote as to give Congress time to 
act. 

In the Council, a motion was made to amend the resolu- 
tion so that the adjournment should be until the third Mon- 
day in January. This was lost by a vote of four to seven, 
Messrs. Barber, Newland, Whiton and Strong voting in 
the affirmative; and then the resolutions were adopted 
unanimously. 

In the House the resolution was amended without division 
so as to provide that the adjournment should be until the 
last Monday in January, and the resolutions were then 
unanimously adopted; Mr. Capron, however, the next day, 
on leave changed his vote to the negative. 



396 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The following are the resolutions as agreed to by both 
houses: 

" Resolved by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin: 
That, in their opinion, the Congress of the United States did, on the eighteentli day of May 
last, appropriate the sum of $:20,000 to defray the expenses of the Legislative Assembly of 
the Territory of Wisconsin, commencing on the first Monday of December, 1842; and that 
there is no law either of Congress or of the TeiTitory which would jirevent the holding of a 
session of the Legislature at the present time or would render invalid or nugatory any law 
which it might enact. 

"Resolved, That while we entertain the opinion that there can be no objection to con- 
tinue the present session of the Legislature by reason of no appropriation having been 
made to defray its expenses, or any other legal disability, yet inasmuch as doubts are en- 
tertained as to tlie expediency of proceeding with business at the present time, because the 
Governor refuses to act with us, we deem it prudent that the Legislative Assembly adjom'n 
their session until the last Monday in January, 1843. 

" Resolved, That the conduct of the Governor in refusing to meet the Legislature at the 
present session, thereby attempting to concentrate all power in his own liands is unparalleled 
in the history of this government and a gross violation of all law — evincing an utter disre- 
gard of the will and interests of the people, and of those laws which as Governor of the 
Territory he is sworn to support, and that his 'refusal to assign reasons for so extraordi- 
nary a course is an insult to the Legislature and the people of Wisconsin. 

" Resolved, That copies of the report of the committee and resolutions, together with a 
transcript of the ayes and noes of both houses upon the passage of these resolutions, be 
transmitted to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives of 
the Uaited States, to be laid before the bodies over which they respectively preside, that 
such relief may be granted by Congress as the nature of the case may require, and the 
wants of the people of the Territory demand." 

A joint committee of the two houses was appointed to 
draft a memorial to the President of the United States, 
praying the removal of the Governor. The committee con- 
sisted of Messrs. Whiton, Barber and Rountree, of the 
Council, and Hamilton, Hopkins and Walker, of the 
House. 

Mr. Whiton, chairman of the committee, reported a 
memorial, which was adopted by a unanimous vote of the 
Council, and by the House with two votes (Messrs. Capron 
and Palmer) in the negative. It was as follows: 

"Memorial 

Of the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin, to the 
President of the United States, praying for the removal of James D. Doty fro7n 
the office of Governor of said Territory. 

To his Excellency John Tyler, President of the United States— 

"Your memorialists beg leave most respectfully to represent that they find themselves 
placed in a most extraordinary and embarrassing situation. The members of the Coimcil 
and House of Representatives were elected by the people of the Territory at a general elec- 
tion, held pursuant to law on the fourth Monday of September last, and on the 5th day of 
D.cember instant, the day appointed by law for the meeting of the Legislature, assembled 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 397 

at the Capitol in Jladison to transact the usual business of the Legislature. The two houses 
proceeded to organize in the usual mode, and then chose a joint committee to wait on his Ex- 
cellency the Governor and iul'orin him of our organization, and that we were ready to 
receive any communication which he might have to make to us. The committee proceeded 
to discha-ge tlie duty assigned them and were informed by the Governor 'that not con- 
ceiving the Legislatui-e had any riglit by law to meet at the present time, he had no com- 
munication to make to them.' The committee reported this fact to the two houses, and 
your memorialists found themselves in the extraordinary ]iosition of two branches of a 
Legislature attempting to hold a session, and the third branch — the Governor — refusing 
his co-operation." 

''In the opinion of many members of the two houses, the legislative functions of your 
memorialists are suspended, by the refusal of the Governor to act with them, and that no 
business can be ti'ansacted. 

Your memorialists need not enlarge upon the embarrassment and confusion which will 
be created by reason of not holding a session of the Legislature at the usual time, nor upon 
the great increase of executive power, vihich that circumstance will occasion. 

If the facts above set forth constituted the only cause of complaint, which your memo- 
rialists and the people of the Teri-itory have against their Governor, your memorialists might 
not have addressed your Excellencj- on the present cccasion, but might have borne with 
whatever patience they could bring to their aid this abuse of power. But your memorialists 
represent that his conduct both before and since his appointment to the ofllce he now fills, 
has been such as to destroy-, in almost the entire population of the Territory, all confidence 
in him as a man and a public officer. 

Your memorialists are informed that numerous charges have been made against him 
which, with the proof to sustain them, are now in the possession of your Excellency. 

Your memorialists would most respectfully call your Excellency's attention to those 
charges and proofs, and also to his recent attempt to corrupt the commissioner of public 
buildings, in order to get that officer to dismiss the suits at law now pending against him, 
to recover large sums of money which he has received on behalf of the Territory and re- 
fuses to pay, as that fact is set forth in the report of the commissioner herewith submitted, 
and to which we respectfully call the attention of your ExceliencJ^ 

For the reasons above set forth we respectfully, yet earnestly, request your Excellency to 
remove James D. Doty fromtlie office of Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin. 

It is with extreme regret that your memorialists have been forced to the extremity of 
making this representation and request ; and we assure your Excellency that nothing short 
of the belief that our duty requires us to take the course we have adopted, would have in- 
duced us to adtlress this memorial to your Excellency; we assure your Excellency, fur- 
ther, that the removal of the Governor is demanded by almost the entire population of 
the Territory, and is tlie onlv nicnsiire which can restore peace ard harmony to the 
people. 

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray."' 

On the 14th of February, the delegate — Gov. Dodge — 
addressed an official letter to the President, ashing for the 
removal of James D. Doty from the office of Governor of 
the Territory. Numerous reasons were assigned for this re- 
quest, among which were : That he had 

"In violation of and contempt for the laws of the United States and of the Territory, re- 
fused to co-operate with the Legislative Assembly at their annual meeting begun on the 
.■)th day of December last." 



398 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

That having accepted the appomtment of Governor in 
April, 1841, he did not resign his office as delegate, nor 
issue a proclamation ordering an election of a delegate in 
Congress, and permitted them thereby to go unrepresented 
in the then next session of Congress, and the belief is ex- 
pressed : 

" That his dereliction of duty in this respect was in consequence of a determination on 
his part to return and occupy the seat as delegate himself, should his nomuiation as Gov- 
ernor be rejected by the Senate, which was confidently expected. 

" That the Governor (Doty) made use of every device in his power to induce the com- 
missioner (of pubic buildings) to favor his schemes to defraud the Territory, and indirectly 
offered to bribe him to dismiss the suits then and still pending in the United States Court 
of the Territory, for the recovery of several thousand dollars, for which the said Doty still 
remains a defaulter. 

" That he recommended and procured the appointment of his own son, Charles Doty, to 
the office of paying pensioners in the Territory, knowing that he was a minor in his nine-, 
teenth year, contrary to the laws of the United States." 

The letter further .states that "petitions from the people in every county, numerously 
signed, have been sent to your Excellency, urging the removal of Gov. Doty from office. 
These petitions, sir, emanate from the people without respect to either of the great parties 
of the country, and show that a large majority of the voters of the Territory desire the 
removal of the Governor." 

A. popular representative Democratic assemblage convened at Madison on the twenty- 
second day of March, to the number of nearly one hundred, appointed at primary 
meetings. Tliei-e wei'e in attendance from Brown coiinty 5 delegates, Crawford 3, Dane 
25, Fond du Lac 1, Grant H, Green 5, Iowa 18, Jefferson 1, Milwaukee 17, Racine 5, Rock 3, 
Sauk 4 and Walworth 9. Total 98. 

The convention resolved " That we view with feelings of surprise and disgust, the recent 
attempts on the part of the Governor to destroy the powers which by the free and honest 
suffrages of the citizens of Wisconsin were entrusted to the members of the fourth 
Legislature." 

Also " That the history of the present Governor of this Territory is a history of re- 
peated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an abso- 
lute tyranny over the people of Wisconsin." 

The Governor was not removed by the President. 

On the tenth day of December both houses adjourned 
until the last Monday in January, 1843, at 12 o'clock M. 

An act "making appropriations for the civil and dij)lomatic 
expenses of government for the half calendar year ending 
the thirtieth day of June, 1843," which was passed Decem- 
ber 24, 1842, contained an appropriation of $19,275 for the ex- 
penses of the Legislative Assembly. 

On the 30th of January, which was the fourth Monday, 
the Governor issued a proclamation for a special session of 
the Legislative Assembly. 

It recited that no appropriation had been made for a ses- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN. 1843. 399 

sion to be held on the first Monday of December, and that 
an appropriation of $19^275 was made on the 24:th of De- 
cember; and that it was provided by law that the Governor 
might appoint special sessions which should not exceed 
twenty days and that a majority of the members had de- 
clared 

" That there were many important subjects deeply affecting the interests of the people 
upon which they are now anxiously desiring legislative action." 

Therefore, he appointed a special ssssion of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly to be held on Monday, the sixth day of March 
next, at twelve o'clock M. 

The House of Representatives met on Monday, the 30th 
of January, the day to which both houses had adjourned, 
but in the Council no quorum was present until Saturday, 
the 4th of February. 

On that day a joint committee was appointed to wait upon 
the Governor, and inform him that the two houses were in 
session pursuant to their adjournment, and ready to receive 
any communication which he might be pleased to make. 
The committee immediately reported that they had 

"Discharged the duty imposed upon them, and were informed by his Excellency that he 
was still of the opinion he had formerly expressed, and had no communication to make to 
the Legislative Assembly, except a copy of his proclamation convening the Legislature on 
the Cth day of March next, which he requested your committee to lay before the Legisla- 
ture." 

Joint resolutions were then adopted, unanimously in the 
Council, and by a vote of 11 to G in the House, which, after 
reciting in detail all that had previously occurred in refer- 
ence to the efforts of the two houses to hold a session of the 
Legislature and of the Governor to prevent it, concluded as 
follows : 

" Resolved, That the Congress of the United States be requested to provide, by law, for 
the election of Governor by the people of the Territory. 

Resolved, That the only reason heretofore assigned by the Governor, for refusing to 
meet the Legislature, having been removed by the appropriation of 24th December last, 
leaves no other excuse for his singular and unwarrantable conduct, than such as can be 
found in his determination to prevent all legislation, and sacriiice for his own private pur- 
poses, the welfare of the Territory and the interests of the people. 

Resolved, That the conduct of Gov. Doty, in again refusing to meet the Legislature, after 
he has been officially informed that an appropriation has been made by Congress to defray 
its expenses, is another evidence of his violation of law, and utter disregard of the duties 
of bis station, and of the wishes and interests of thd people. 

Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing preamble and resolutions be forwarded to the 
President of the United States, and to the presiding officers of the Senate and House of 
Representatives of Congress." 



400 HISTORY t)F THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A joint resolution was then offered in the Council by Mr. 
Crocker, with a preamble reciting the reasons, and con- 
cluding that inasmuch as the Governor had refused to co- 
operate with the Legislature, it was advisable to adjourn to 
meet on the 6th day of March next. 

To this Mr. Whiton offered an amendment — 

"That the Legislative Assembly will now proceed to discharge its duties without regard 
to any covirse that has been or may be pursued by the Governor." 

This amendment was supported by Messrs. La'Chapelle, 
Whiton and Strong, but was not carried, and the resolu- 
tion offered by Mr. Crocker was adopted by the Council 
and concurred in by the House, and on the 6th of February 
both houses adjourned to meet on the 6th March at 10 
o'clock, A. M. 

Both houses assembled on the 6th of March, there being 
a full attendance of members in each. 

There was some discrepancy in the hour of assembling, as 
specified in the resolution of adjournment and as prescribed 
by the Gov ernor's proclamation. By the former the hour 
was fixed at 10 o'clock A. M., and by the latter at 12 M. 

The journal of the Council stated that it "met pursuant to 
adjournment" and that of the House stated that it "was 
called to order at 10 o'clock A. M. by the Speaker." 

A resolution was offered in the House — 

"That a committee be appointed to act jointly with a committee on the part of the Coun- 
cil, to wait upon the Governor and inform him that quorums of the two houses have 
assembled, and that they are now ready to receive any communication he may be pleased 
to make to them." 

Motions were successively made to lie on the table until 
after 12 o'clock M., to adjourn until 12 o'clock M., to insert 
after the word "assembled" the words "pursuant to his 
proclamation," and also to insert the words "again pursuant 
to adjournment," but they were all lost, and the resolution 
as originally introduced was adopted and concurred in by 
the Council. The committee was appointed and immedi- 
ately reported to the Council that they had performed the 
duty assigned them, and were informed by his Excellency 
that he would send a written message to each house at 2 
o'clock, to which hour both houses adjourned. 

The message of the Governor, after opening with a state- 
ment of his reasons for appointing a special session of the 
Legislature contained a sentence the ambiguity of which 
was the occasion of severe censure in both houses. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 401 

In the Council, Mr. Crocker, the chairman of the com- 
mittee to wait on the Governor; when the message had been 
read, called the attention of the Council to a passage in it, 
which he said 

"The author must know, which every member of the committee knows, and which ho 
would now assure the Council was entirely false." The passage is in these words: "I there- 
fore meet you on this occasion, being mformed by your committee that the two houses are 
convened for the purpose of holding a special session." 

"This allusion of the Governor to the information which he derived from the joint com- 
mittee who waited upon him," Mr. Crocker pronounced to be "an unqualified falsehood, 
and in this declaration he knew he would be sustained by every member of the com- 
mittee." 

No further notice was taken of the matter in the Council. 

In the House the message was referred to a select com- 
mittee of which Dr. Darling was chairman, who reported 
that the discrepancy of statement between the Governor and 
the committee 

"Must have arisen from an error of punctuation in the reading of the message by the 
clerk" ***** "The idea intended to be conveyed by his Excellency in tliis pas- 
sage might have been that the committee merely communicated the fact, that the two 
houses had now convened, and that 7te,' therefore, met them for the purpose of holding a 
special session." 

The report of the committee states that this conclusion is 
confirmed by 

"The fact that the Governor must have known that the Assembly adjourned from the 6th 
day of February to meet again on the 6th day of March, at a previous hour to the one 
named in the px'oclamation and consequently had not met under that proclamation." 

This charitable excuse for the offensive passage was not 
satisfactory to a large minority of the members of the House, 
and Mr. Elmore, a member of the committee to wait on the 
Governor, offered a preamble which recited the facts, and 
the following resolutions : 

" Resolved, That the statement made by the Governor of ' his being informed lay your 
committee that the two Houses are now convened for the purpose of holding a special 
session' is wholly unwarranted and without excuse. 

" Resolved, That the message of the Governor be prefaced with the foregoing preamble 
and resolution." 

On motion of Mr. Darlixpt the preamble and resolutions 
were indefinitely postponed by a vole of 14 to 10. 

The message recommended the submission to the people 
of the question of the adoption of a State government, and 
that a law should be passed authorizing a vote to be an- 
nually taken upon the question. 
26 



402 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The adjustment and payment of the Territorial debt, 
economy in pubhc expenditures, reduction in the fees of of- 
ficers, expense of courts, and of town and county govern- 
ment, reform in the system of taxation, and a reduction of 
the cost of pubhc printing were recommended. 

The distributive share of Wisconsin of the net proceeds of 
the pubhc lands was stated to have amounted, June 1, 1842, 
to $1,082.45, and the application of it to the repairs which 
are required on the Territorial roads leading west from 
Astor, Milwaukee, Racine, and South port was recommended. 

The improvement of the navigation of the Wisconsin 
River and the establishment of a Territorial road from 
Prairie du Chien, by the mills on the Black and Chippewa 
rivers to the shores of Lake Superior, at the mouth of the 
Montreal River, comprised the measures recommended by 
the message, with the concluding advice — 

"That we should hold a short term and confine our labors chiefly to the amendment of 
the laws now in force rather than the enactment of new ones." 

The several parts of the Governor's message were referred 
to appropriate committees in both houses; the customary 
communications between the two houses and the Governor 
had been made; on the 7th inst., a joint resolution to 
authorize the purchase of stationery was presented to the 
Governor for his approval, which on the 10th of March in a 
message dated the 9th, was returned to the House with his 
objections, which were confined to its expediency, and 
everything indicated that entire harmony existed in the 
official relations between the Governor and the Legis- 
lature. 

The conflicts as to whether the session was a " special " or 
an " adjourned" one, were dying away; a motion to amend 
the journal of the Council of the Gth of March by striking 
out the words " the Council met pursuant to adjournment " 
and inserting in lieu thereof the words " the Council was 
called to order at ten o'clock A. M., by the President," had 
been adopted, and both houses appeared to be in the full 
tide of co-operative legislative work. 

But a new movement of the Governor within one short 
week of the commencement of this session of ambiguous 
origin, was now to destroy this harmony and again renew 
the contest between him and the representatives of the 
people. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 403 

On the 13th of March, the Governor returned without his 
approval to the Housie of Representatives, in which it origi- 
nated, a bill to amend a ferry charter. The message did 
not state any objections to the bill itself, but says: 

" When I met you on the 0th instant I stated in my message that it was for the purpose 
of holding a special session. It appears by your journals that you are holding a session 
which commenced on the first Monday in December last, and which has continued to the 
present time by adjournment or otherwise. 

" I met you on the sixth to hold a term which is styled by the law a ' sjiecial session,' 
and I can take no part or lot in any other. ********** 

" I therefore return the bill and must decline receiving it or any other bill until advised 
that the members are holding the ' special session ' appointed by the proclamation of the 
31st of January last." 

The two houses continued during the whole of that week 
their ordinary work of legislation. 

The following report of the committee on enrollment pre- 
sented March 17, by Mr. Whiton, the chairman, gives a cor- 
rect idea of the official relations between the Governor and 
the Legislature. 

"The committee on enrollment report, that the said committee did, on this day, present 
to his Excellency, the Governor, for his approval, a bill entitled 'An act to annex certain 
fractions or lots of land in the town of Rock, in the county of Rock.' That his Excellency 
immediately took the bill from the table, where it had been placed by the chairman of 
the committee, and placed it in the hat of the chairman, and said : ' I must decline to 
receive it.' The chaii-man then asked his Excellency if he could leave it. His Excellency 
answered, ' No, you can not leave it.' The chairman then said, ' Tlie bill has been pre- 
sented.' His Excellency then replied, " Yes, the bill has been presented.' The committee 
then retired with the bill in the hat of the chairman, where it had been placed by his Ex- 
cellency. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Edward V. Whiton, 

H. Crocker, 

Robert BI. Long, 

John M. Capron. 

John H. Manahan." 

On the 17tli of March the House adopted the following 
joint resolution, by a vote of 20 to G : 

" That a committee of three from each house be appointed to confer with the executive 
relative to the disagreement between the executive and Legislative Assembly." 

In the Council on the same day the resolution was re- 
jected by a vote of 8 to 5. 

On the 18th of March, a preamble and resolution were 
offered by Mr. Martin, which after slight verbal amend- 
ments were adopted by the Council in the following terms : 

Whereas, The Governor of the Territory has informed the two houses of the Legislative 
Assembly, that he declines any further commimication with them until advised that the 



404 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

members are holding the special session appointed by the proclamation of the 31st of 
January last ; and 

'■Whereas, The public good imperiously demands the enactment of various laws at the 
present time, and more especially such laws as may have a tendency to relieve the people 
of the Territory from the evils vi'hich now exist in consequence of the accumulation of 
power in the hands of the present executive ; 

" The Legislative Assembly, therefore, for the sole purpose of satisfying the scruples of the 
Governor, and thereby enabling all the branches of the Legislature to proceed harmoni- 
ously in the business of their session; yet protesting against the right of the executive to 
demand the information sought, and declaring that the resolutions hereto annexed 
shaU not be taken or considered as expressing the opinions of the members of the Assem- 
bly in regard to the question ' Whether the present is an adjourned or a special session ? ' 
resolves as follows : 

" Resolved, The House of Representatives concurring : 

"1st. That the Legislative Assembly is now holding the ' special session appointed by 
the proclamation of the Governor, dated January 31st, 1843.' 

" 2d. That the present officers of the two houses shall continue in office until further order 
of their respective houses ; and the presiding officer of each house is hereby authorized to 
make such alteration in the journal of the proceedings of the 6th of March inst., kept by 
thsm respectively, as shall make it correspond with the resolution first above written. 

" 3. That the committee on enrollment be directed to communicate to the Governor the 
information expressed in these resolutions." 

After the passage of these resolutions and their trans- 
mission to the House, the Council took a recess to await 
the action of the House. 

The House concurred in the resolutions by a vote of 13 
to 11, and at 9 o'clock P. M, the result was announced to 
the Council by the President, who then resigned his office, 
saying — 

"I cannot make the alterations which the resolutions require me to without becoming 
the instrument of the Council in placing upon the journal what I deem to be a falsehood, 
and of making myself appear in the character of an usm'per of authority that I did not 
possess. Neither of these things can I consent to do. It appears to me therefore that the 
only course left for me to pm-sue is to resign to your hands the office you have conferred 
upon me." 

On Monday, the 20th March, Morgan L. Martin was 
elected President, but it does not appear from the printed 
journal that any alteration to it was ever made. 

On the same day the Governor sent to each house a mes- 
sage as follows — 

"I have the ho-.^r to acknowledge the receipt this morning o^ a joint resolution of the 
Assembly passed on the 18th inst., relative to the present session of the Assembly, and to 
express my entire willingness to co-operate with the Council and House of Representatives 
in the dispatch of the public business. 

Executive Depahtment, Madison, March 20, 1843. J. D. Doty." 

The thirty days to which the special session was limited 
by law would expire on the 25th of Ma,rch, and it only re- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 405 

mained to provide for the contingency now quite certain to 
occur, that the expiration of the time would find the busi- 
ness of the session unfinislied. 

For that purpose a biU had been introduced in the Coun- 
cil on the 13th of March and passed on the IGth. It passed 
the House on the 20th, and was approved by the Governor 
on the 23d. 

The act provided that the session then being held should 
terminate on the 25th of March, and that there should be a 
session held at the Capitol to commence on the 27th day of 
March, at 10 o'clock A. M., which should continue until ter- 
minated by joint resolution of the Assembly, at which the 
Council and House of Representatives might proceed to 
complete the unfinished business remaining in their respec- 
tive houses at the termination of the session then being 
held. 

A joint resolution was adopted on the 23d March, that the 
session to commence on the 27th March, should terminate 
on or before the 17th April. 

Both houses formally adjourned their sessions sine die on 
the 25th March, and re-assembled on the 27th, and a resolu- 
tion was passed in each house, that the organization of the 
last session stand for the present session and that all the 
officers then chosen be continued for this session. 

A joint committee was appointed to wait on the Governor 
who immediately sent to each house a brief message, which 

"Invited attention to the various subjects presented in his message of the Gth instant 
which had not already received their consideration and renewed his assurance that he 
should cheerfully co-operate with the Assembly in aU such measures as might be proposed 
for the public good, and upon which by the acts of Congress we have the right to legislate." 

The Governor said in conclusion — 

"I avail myself of the occasion to remark that I consider the appointment of civil officers 
of the Territory by the Council and House of Representatives the exercise of an authority 
not granted by the acts of Congress, and being an encroachment upon the powers of the 
Executive it will become my duty to resist it by such means as the consfcitution has provided 
for the Executive to protect itself." 

John V. Ingeesoll resigned the office of Secretary of the 
Council and John P. Sheldon was appointed as his suc- 
cessor. 

Notwithstanding the embarrassments which the Legis- 
lative Assembly encountered from the causes already 
stated, quite a number of laws were passed, which were 
regarded by the members as of importance to the Terri- 



40G HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

tory. Many of these were passed by two thirds of each 
house, after having been returned by the Governor without 
his approval. 

It had been found that the time allowed by law (one 
week) for holding court in Walworth county, where the 
Territorial suits were pending, was not long enough to admit 
of the trial of those cases, and the time was extended at 
this session to three weeks. 

An act was also passed over the Governor's veto to provide 
for the election by joint ballot of the Council and House of 
Representatives, of an agent of the Legislative Assembly to 
be styled "Superintendent of Territorial Property." The 
act provided that all the duties which devolved by law 
upon the commissioner of public buildings and those which 
devolved by law upon the librarian, should devolve upon 
and be performed by the Superintendent of Territorial 
Property. John Y. Smith was elected superintendent under 
this law. 

It was by the act made the duty of this new officer 
to bring to as speedy a termination as possible the several 
suits pending in favor of the Territory in the county of 
Walworth, and he was vested with full power and authority 
to compromise, settle, and discharge said suits. 

The board of commissioners of Dane county submitted to 
the Legislative i^.ssembly a proposition to put a new roof 
upon the Capitol in consideration of being permitted to use 
suitable rooms in it as offices for county purposes; where- 
upon an act was passed authorizing the superintendent to 
contract with the county to that effect. 

Under these laws the principal duties devolved upon the 
" superintendent " as successor of the commissioner were 
such as related to the Territorial suits and the care of the 
Capitol. 

In relation to the Capitol, Baxter claimed that he had 
completed his contract and that a large amount was due to 
him for extra work, which the Superintendent was not au- 
thorized to adjust, much less to pay, and which could only 
be settled by the Legislature, and which they were annually 
called upon to investigate for a series of years. 

In pursuance of the provisions of the foregoing act a 
contract was made with the commissioners of Dane county, 
for new shingling the roof of the Capitol and covering the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 407 

hips of the main roof with sheet lead, in consideration of 
which the use of suitable rooms in the Capitol as offices for 
county purposes was granted to the county. 

The county officers also by the authority of the Superin- 
tendent did additional work to the amount of l-tSo in re- tin- 
ning the dome and finishing the back piazza, with the under- 
standing that the Legislature would be at perfect liberty to 
pay the expense or not. 

In relation to the Territorial suits the report of the super- 
intendent makes the following statements: 

" Tlie suit against tlie building commissioners, J. D. Doty, John F. O'Neill, xVugustus 
A. Bird, and their sureties, came on for trial at the April term, 1843, for Walworth county. 

" The substance of the evidence on the part of the Territory was, that the defendants had 
received from the Treasury of the United States, by authority from the Territory, forty 
thousand dollars, wliich they were bound to expend according to the provisions of law, 
in the erection of the Capitol at Madison. It was also shown in evidence by two of the 
most competent builders in the Territory, that up to the time the work was taken out of the 
hands of these commissioners, there could not have been expended upon the building to 
exceed eighteen or nineteen thousand dollars, making sufficient allowance for the circum- 
stances under which the work was commenced and i^rosecuted. It was further shown that 
the money had been expended for other purposes than l)uilding the Capitol. 

" The evidence chiefly relied on by the defense, and, indeed, the only evidence having 
any bearing on the case so far as related to the first $30,000, was a memorial to Congress, 
adopted by the Legislature of the Territory, asking for an additional appropriation of 
$20,000 to complete the building. 

" This memoi-ial contains what was claimed to be a tacit admission that the money had 
been properly expended according to law, in the following extract: 'These commis- 
sioners, in the exercise of the authority vested in them, immediately proceeded in the 
performance of the dutie^ assigned to them, having, however, at the outset, difficulties of 
no ordinary nature to contend with, arising from the scarcity of the proper materials, and 
the scarcity also of meihanics and laborers — the former of which could not be piu'chased, 
and the latter not employed but at very high prices. At a great but not unreasonable ex- 
pense (taking the situation and resources of the Territory into consideration), the public 
buildings were commenced, and have progressed as far as, under the pressure of adverse 
rcicumstances, could reasonably have been anticipated.' 

"The following resolution adopted by both houses of the Assembly at the same session, 
but a few days after the adoptjon of the memorial, shows in express language that the 
Legislature did not intend to justify the commissioners in any of their acts — 

'Resolved by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin, 
that the report of the commissioners appointed to agree upon a plan of the public build- 
ings and to superintend the erection of the same at I\Iadison, dated at Mineral Point 
November 29, 1837, be approved ; provided, that nothing herein contained shall go to excuse 
the commissioners for any misconduct or for acting contrary to the act above recited.' 

"I have made these extracts," the superintendent in his report continues, "for the pur- 
pose of presenting a condensed view of the nature of the evidence which ]irocured, or 
rather furnished an excuse for a verdict against the Territory, in oi-der that the Legisla- 
ture may be better able to judge as to the propriety of further prosecuting those suits. 

"There was no definite testimony of any sort to show what disposition had been made of 
the second appropriation of $20,000. One of the witnesses (Mr. Morrison) stated in gen- 



408 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

eral terms that certain items of work and materials cost him certain sums; when asked 
how much had been paid him by the commissioners on his contract he declined giving an 
answer, and was excused by the court from doing so. 

"With this view of the testimony, which I believe is fairly stated, it may appear strange to 
any one unacquainted with other circumstances attending the trial that such a verdict 
should have been rendered, but to every one present at the Walworth court in April last, it 
must have been apparent that no amount of testimony nor any array of professional 
talent could possibly have produced a different result from the jury wh'ch tried the 
cause." 

"From an examination of the list of jurors summoned for that term of court, it was 
manifest that there had been foul play, and that the jury had been selected to meet the 
emergency. Of the thirty-six jurors drawn for that term of the court, all but three or four 
were attached to the political party known to be, in that county, particularly favorable 
to the executive of the Territory, and the whole seventy-two selected for the year, were 
about in the same proportion. 

"When the case was called for trial, it was found that but about half the full panel of ju- 
rors were present. The counsel for the Territory insisted that the panel should be filled, 
before drawing from the box, which was refused by the court. Several of the jurors were 
put upon their voire dire, who uniformly swore that they had not formed or expressed 
any opinion in relation to the case. In the case of one of these jurors it was proven in 
court, in the face of his oath to the contrary, that he had repeatedly expressed such an 
opinion; and the same might have been proven of some others, who testified upon their 
voire dire , but owing to the limited number of jurors present, the counsel for the Territory 
did not deem it prudent. It is also a fact that at least half the jury who tried the case 
boarded, during the four days occupied in the trial, with one of the defendants (Governor 
Doty) at a private house; and I am creditably informed that some of them changed their 
boarding places and took lodgings with his Excellency after they were sworn upon the 
jury." 

' ' The counsel for the Ten-itory moved for a new trial, on the ground that the verdict 
was contrary to law and evidence ; which motion was sustained, and a new trial ordered, 
on condition that the Territoi-y pay the costs already incurred, instanter, and in less than 
twenty-four hours after this decision was made, judgment was entered against the Terri- 
tory for costs in consequence of the order of the previous day not having been complied 
with. The costs amounted to $150, and no provision has been made by the Legislature to 
meet such an emergency. 

" The case has been brought up to the Supreme Court, by vn-it of error. The defendants 
at the July term of the Supreme Coiu-t, alleged a defect in the records, and obtained an 
order to perfect the same, which prevented the case being argued at that term of the court. 
It is the opinion of good judges of law that there are strong points of error in the case, and 
that an order for a new trial is sure to be obtained." 

Baxter presented his claim against the Territory, and the 
whole subject, together with that of the bonds issued, for 
the completion of the Capitol, was referred to a joint com- 
mittee, who submitted the following propositions for con- 
sideration : 

" First. To abandon forever the purpose of ever having, building, or finishing a capitol 
at Madison. 
" Second. To change the place of meeting of the Legislature to Prairie du Chien, Green 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 409 

Bay, or Milwaukee, or wherever buildings and accommodations might be had free of ex- 
pense to the Territory. 

"Third. To settle, on as reasonable terms as possible, with Baxter, and dissolve by 
mutual consent, and cancel the contract for finishing the capitol. 

" Fourth. To raise a revenue from the several counties which will be sufficient m a short 
time to redeem the bonds, and abolish the office of Attorney-General as a useless burden 
to the Territory, and apply the salary appertaining to that office to the liquidation of said 
bonds. 

" Fifth. To authorize the Superintendent of Territorial Property to commence suit 
forthwith against James Morrison, to recover the money now in his hands belonging to 
the Territory." 

No action was taken in relation to either of these proposi- 
tions except the third, as to which a resolution was adopted 
by both houses — 

" That a joint committee of two from each house be ai:)poiuted to settle with Daniel 
Baxter for worlv done on the capitol." 

The committee submitted a report, but it did not result in 
any action by the Legislature. 

Mr. Capron, of Walworth county, on the 12th of April — 
two days before the close of the session — offered a resolution, 

" That be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to exam- 
ine and finally settle the accounts, vouchers, and all claims and matters in dispute, in rela- 
tion to the public buildings at Madison, between the Territory of Wisconsin and James D. 
Doty and his sureties, and John F. O'Neill, A. A. Bird, James Morrison and Daniel 
Baxter and his sureties, or with either of said parties, and that the commissioners report 
the result of their proceedings to the Legislature at the next session." 

The resolution was laid on the table and not called up 
during the remaining two days of the session. 

The librarian appointed by the Governor was his broth- 
er-in-law, Mr. Barlow Shackelford, who seems to have be- 
come involved in a conflict with the Legislature. 

His predecessor, Mr. Lull, contracted with Messrs. J. & L. 
Ward for the stationery for the use of the Legislature for 
the year 1842-3, as it was his duty by law to do, and it ap- 
pears to have come to the possession of Mr. Shackelford 
before the first of February, 1843. The law made it the duty 
of the librarian to deliver the stationery to the Secretary of 
the Council and Clerk of the House. But on that day in 
reply to a request from the Clerk for the delivery of the 
stationery for the use of the House, the librarian replied 
that he had just received word from Mr. Ward not to de- 
liver the stationery until the commencement of a legal 
session of the Legislature, and that none could be delivered 
at present. 

The Clerk reported the facts to the House which appointed 



410 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

a committee to examine the library and ascertain the facts 
in relation to the stationery. 

The committee on the second of February addressed a 
letter to the librarian enclosing a copy of the resolution, and 
inquiring when it would be convenient for him that they 
should proceed to examine the library and to answer the 
inquiries made by the resolution. 

To this letter the librarian made the following reply: 

Madison, February 3, 1843. 
" To Messrs. Hamilton, Darling and Hunkin.s: 

Gentlemen: Your favor of 2nd inst. has been received. In which you desire to be in- 
formed when it will be convenient for me that you should proceed to examine the library^ 
and hand you an answer, etc. 

In reply, I have only to say that it will afford me great pleasure and be entirely conven- 
ient to give the information desired on the sixth day of March, eighteen hundred and 
forty-three. I am with great respect, 

B. Shackelford, 

Librarian." 

The Legislative Assembly on the 7th of March, passed a 
joint resolution 

" That the Secretary of the Council and Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives be 
authorized to purchase the stationery necessary for the use of the Legislature during the 
present session." 

The resolution was sent to the Governor for his approval, 
and on the 10th of March he returned it to the House with his 
objections, and on the same day it passed the House by a 
vote of 23 to 1 (Mr. Palmer in the negative). Absent, 
Messrs. Agry and Manahan. It passed the Council by 12 
to 0. Absent, Mr. Dewey. 

The auditor appointed by Governor Doty was Mr. Julius 
T. Clark. He had been suffered to use for his ofhce one of 
the committee rooms of the Capitol. 

Mr. Clark being unwilling to vacate the room the House 
passed a resolution 

" That the Sergeant-at-Arms be directed to notify the Auditor that the exclusive use of 
said room must be given to the use of the Legislative Assembly, and the key thereof placed 
in the hands of the Sergeant-at-Arms." 

This having been done, the Auditor on the same day ad- 
dressed a communication to the House, which it character- 
ized as " insolent." He stated that 

'• Under ordinary circumstances he should not have hesitated to comply with a request 
of the House covering the grounds embraced in the resolution ; but in this instance he was 
constrained to believe that more was meant by the resolution than at first meets the eye." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 411 

This latent meaning of the resolution the Auditor believed 
to be, as he plainly intimated, that the House desired 

"To remove the records and papers, etc., of his office from the room," and said he 
deemed it his duty to guard them, and if such is the object, he said, " I do not feel at liberty 

to surrender it (the room) ." 

Thereupon the House by a vote of 15 to 7 adopted a 
resolution 

"That the Sergeantat-Arms be directed to remove the effects of the said Clark from tlie 
said room and talce possession of tlie same for the use of the Legislature, peaceably if he 
can, forciblij if he must." 

It was found that force was necessary to obtain pos- 
session of the room. 

A resolution was adopted by the House on the Gth day of 
December 

"That the editors and reporters of the different newspapers pubHslied in the Territory 
be allowed to occupy seats witliin the bar of this House." 

Under this resolution the reporter of the Wisconsin En- 
quirer, the reputed organ of Governor Doty, had occupied a 
seat until the 24th of March. 

Many complaints of the unfairness of his reports had from 
time to time been made, and on that day Dr. Dapling of- 
fered a preamble which recited specific instances of false re- 
ports and suppressions, as well as slanders and libels of a 
member of the House and a resolution 

"That the reporter and editor of the Wisconsin Enquires- be expelled from scats 
within the bar of this House." 

The "preamble and resolutions were adopted in a full 
House by a vote of 34 to 2, Messrs. Capron and Palmer 
alone voting against them. 

The recommendation of the Governor that .provision he 
made by law for a vote of the people on the question of the 
formation of State government did not meet with a favor- 
able response by the Legislative Assembly. In the Council 
no notice was taken of it except to refer it to a committee, 
which made no report, and in the House a joint resolution 
was introduced, which, after being amended, was indefi- 
nitely postponed. 

The Governor however on the 23rd of August, issued his 
proclamation, reciting that as no provision had been made 
by law for such vote — 

"Therefore, in order that the public voice may not be stifled by this failure, but that it 
may be clearly expressed to the Congress of the United States and the Legislatm-e of this 



412 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



Territory be thereby instructed, I do recommend to each of the inhabitants to deposit 
•with the judges of the election precincts on the day of the general election, to-wit: the 
fourth Monday of September next, a ballot with the word "yea" or "nay" thereon, as the 
voter may be in favor of or against the formation of a permanent government for the 
State of Wisconsin." 

This proclamation of the Governor elicited less interest 
than that of the previous year. Only five of the counties 
which then made returns made any this year, while five 
others made returns this year which made none the pre- 
ceding year. The total vote was only 1,817, although the 
total vote of the Territory for delegate was over eight 
thousand. 

The following table shows the vote as returned — 



Counties. 



Brown 

Dane and Sauk 
Fond du Lac... 

Iowa 

Manitowoc 

Milwaukee 

Rock 

Walworth 

Washington 

Winnebago — 
Totals.... 



Against. 



110 

21 

35 

563 

6 

169 

158 

175 

10 

30 



1,276 



This inharmonious session of the Legislature called out 
from the Governor ten vetoes of its acts and joint resolutions; 
being more than one sixth of the whole number passed, of 
which all but two were on re-consideration passed by two 
thirds of each house. 

Of these vetoed measures, incidental mention has already 
been made of the joint resolution authorizing the purchase 
of stationery; of the bill to amend a ferry charter, the vote 
on the reconsideration of which was 10 to 2 in the Council 
and 19 to 6 in the House, and of the bill to elect a superin- 
tendent of territorial property, which on re-consideration 
received the votes of every member of the Council (13) 
while in the House the vote was 24 to 2. 

The other seven of these measures with the vote in each 
House on re-consideration were as follows: 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 413 

" An act to abolish certain offices therein named," (Laws 
of 1843, p. 28) — vote in Council 10 to 2; in House 17 to 8. 

" An act to amend an act entitled 'an act to change the 
time of holding courts in certain counties in the second 
judicial district" (Laws of 1843, p. 73) — vote in Council 11 
to 0; in the House 25 to 0. 

"An act concerning removals from office." (Laws of 1843, 
p. 7G.) Vote in Council, 9 to 1; in Housej 24 to 1. 

"An act to provide for the payment of the expenses of the 
Legislative Assembly." (Laws of 1843, p. 76.) Vote in Coun- 
cil, 9 to 1 ; in House, 20 to 5. 

" Joint resolutions relative to the distributive share of 
Wisconsin in the net proceeds of the public lands." (Laws 
of 1843, p. 84). Vote in Council, 8 to 3; in House, 21 to 4. 

The two measures that did not pass over the vetoes, and 
the votes thereon, were: 

'"'An act to provide for the election of a Territorial printer." 
The vote in the Council was 7 to 5, which, not being two 
thirds, it was not sent to the House. 

And "an act to amend an act to prevent trespass and 
other injuries being done to the possessions of settlers on 
public lands, and to define the right of possession on said 
lands, approved January 4, 1842." The vote in the Council 
was unanimous in favor of the passage on reconsideration, 
but in the House the vote was 15 to 10 — not two thirds. 

In compliance with a resolution of the Council, the Gov- 
ernor, on the 30th of March, sent to the Council a copy of 
the estimate submitted by him September 2G, 1842, to the 
Register of the United States Treasury, of appropriations 
for the support of the government of Wisconsin for the 
half year ending June 30, 1843, and for the year ending June 
30, 1844, which were referred to the committee on Territorial 
affairs. 

The next day Mr. Crocker, chairman of the committee 
on Territorial affairs, submitted the report of that commit- 
tee, which exposed some grave errors in the estimates of the 
Governor. The estimates were in tabular form, and were 
repeated separately for each of the two periods. They each 
contained the following: 

For pay of members, 75 days each, at $3 per day $6,750 00 

Formileage 400 00 

$7,150 00 



414 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The committee call attention to the fact that there ai'e 39 members, and that 

a correct estimate for 75 clays each, at $3 per day would be $8,775 00 

That the act of Congress allows |3 for every twenty miles travel, that the amount 
of mileage allowed at the present session is $1,035 80, and about the same sum 
has been allowed at every session 1,035 SO 

True sum for per diem and mileage of members $9,810 80 

Deduct estimate of Governor 7,150 00 

Under-estimate on these items $2,660 80 

A difference for both periods of $5,321.60. 

The estimates of the Governor were the guide of Con- 
gress in the two appropriations of December 24, 1842, and 
March 3, 1843, and the appropriations correspond Hterally 
with the estimates. 

There are other items in which the committee think the 
estimates are too low, which may result from error in judg- 
ment, but in reference to the items for mileage and pay of 
members, they say — 

"The committee would be happy, out of charity to his Excellency, to consider this error 
as unintentional ou his part and the result of ignorance of the simjile rules of arithmetic. 
They might adopt this conclusion had this error occurred but once, but when it occurs a 
second time they can attribute it to no other intention or object on the part of his Excel- 
lency than a desire to again plunge the Territory into all the difficulties attending expendi- 
tures exceeding the appropriations. 

"The committee cannot forbear to express their opinion that the attempt to mislead 
the Treasury Department and thereby prevent the requisite appropriations by Congress, 
is a part of the scheme devised by his Excellency to prevent as far as possible, the sessions 
of the Legislative Assembly and involve in confusion and difficulty the financial affaii's of 
the Territory. 

'The committee would cheerfully avoid the necessity of speaking in terms of condemna- 
tion of the Governor in this instance, having so often in the discharge of their duties as 
members of the Legislature, been called upon to censure his official conduct. It is humili- 
ating to the members of this body that they are so often compelled to hold up to the public 
gaze the errors and imperfections of the Executive of their Territory, yet it is necessary 
that they be exposed, that he may be prevented from committing similar offences in 
future." 

The annual report of the Territorial Treasurer (James 
Morrison) was laid before the House of Representatives on 
the 1st day of April, 1843. 

It showed disbursements during a period extending from 
September 18, 1841, to March 7, 1843, amounting in the ag- 
gregate to $5,895.75, the means to pay which had been the 
Territorial revenue from the several counties. 

The Capitol Fund account showed that the Treasurer had received 
from the United States $1 ,758.28 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 415 

That the expenses of collection were $42.03 

Paid for fifteen bonds of $100 each, issued to Daniel Baxter and 

interest I.TIOOO 

Balance of specie on hand 0.'~;S 

$1,758.28 

That he had received from his predecessor ten of the Baxter bonds of 

$100 each, and had then on hand $1,000 

The system of levying and collecting Territorial reve- 
nue was radically changed by the Legislature at this ses- 
sion, by providing that there should be annually levied in 
each county a Territorial tax of such per cent, on the assess- 
ment roll as the Legislative Assembly shall have prescribed 
at its next preceding annual session. 

The rate prescribed for the year 1843, was three eights of 
a mill on the dollar in Milwaukee, Racine, Jefferson and 
Crawford counties, and five eights of a mill on the dollar in 
all the other counties. 

The President of the Council, on the 8th of March, called 
Mr. Newland to the chair, and from the floor offered cer- 
tain joint resolutions relative to the northwestern boundar}" 
of the Territory. 

The resolutions declared that the treaty commonly called 
the "Ashburton treaty," concluded at Washington, August 
Dth, 1842, between Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton, 
by the boundary therein defined from Lake Superior to the 
Lake of the Woods, by the way of Pigeon river, surrenders 
to the British government without the slighest equivalent, 
the extensive tract of country lying between that boundary 
and the water communication from Lake Superior to Rainy 
Lake, by way of the Kamanistiquia River and the Long 
Lake; which was clearly within the limits of the United 
States as defined by the treaty of 1783, and within the limits 
of the Territory of Wisconsin. 

The resolutions specified other violations of the rights of 
the people of Wisconsin by the treaty, and requested the 
government of the United States by treaty with Great 
Britain or otherwise to restore the boundary defined by the 
treaty of 1783. 

The temporary occupant of the chair decided that the 
President had no right to offer resolutions as a member, and 
that the resolutions were not in order. 

From this decision Mr. Strong appealed, claiming that his 



V 



416 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

election to the Presidency had not deprived him of any of 
his rights as a member. 

The decision of the chair was overruled and the resolu- 
tions were received. They were considered at a subsequent 
day, and indefinitely postponed. 

One bill granting a divorce passed the House without a 
division, but in the Council it was refused a third reading 
by a vote of 4 to 8. 

One bill was passed to change a person's name from 
Henry Saunders Brown to Henry Brown Saunders. 

The question of the division of Grant and Iowa counties, 
and the creation of a new county, of which Platteville 
should be the county seat, was one that excited much inter- 
est in the localities immediately affected by it. 

Numerous petitions were presented which were referred 
to the committee on corporations, which reported that there 
was a remonstrance of 1,398 names against any division of 
said counties, and that the petitions in favor of the division 
contained 1,147 names, leaving a majority of 251 against any 
division, and a majority of the committee reported a resolu- 
tion that the prayer of the petition be not granted and the 
committee be discharged. 

The minority of the committee submitted a report, in 
which they concurred with the majority as to the division 
of Iowa county, but introduced a bill for the division of 
Grant county, which provided that the people should ap- 
prove or disapprove of the same at the ballot box. 

This bill was indefinitely pos^^poned by a vote of 16 to 9. 

Mr. Platt (of Platteville) then offered a resolution that 
the voters of Grant county, at the next general election, be 
authorized to vote for or against a division of said county 
from north to south. But the House refused to pass the res- 
olution by a vote of 11 to 14. 

By " an act relative to Dodge county" (laws of 1843, p. 54) 
an election of a judge of probate was provided for. The 
voters were also authorized to determine by ballot the place 
at which the county commissioners should hold their ses- 
sions, and thereafter the sessions of the county board should 
bo held at the place so determined upon. 

The fourth section of the act of January 9, 1840, which 
authorized the holding of courts in the county of St. Croix 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 417 

was repealed, and the county was attached to the county of 
Crawford. 

A number of laws were passed creating and changing 
the boundaries of towns. 

These are stated as a matter of historical interest to the 
different localities. 

In Walworth county the original town of Troy embraced 
town 4, ranges 17 and 18. It was divided, the west half be- 
ing called Meacham and the east half retaining the name 
of Troy. At the same session, in less than three weeks, 
such was the dissatisfaction that another law was passed 
giving to Meacham the name of Troy, and to Troy that of 
East Troy. The towns of La'Fayette La'Grange and 
Sharon in the same county were created. 

In Milwaukee county the towns of Nemahbin and Ottawa 
were organized. 

In Rock county the towns of Johnstown and Fulton were or- 
ganized; the north half of town three, range eleven, was an- 
nexed to Union; fractional sections one and two lying north 
and west of Rock River in town two, range twelve, were at- 
tached to the town of Rock; five sections in the town of 
Beloit were attached to the town of Clinton, and that part 
of town three, range twelve, west of Rock River was an- 
nexed to the town of Janesville. 

In Jefferson county the town of Oakland was detached 
from the town of Jefferson and organized separately, and 
the north half of town 6, and the two southern tiers of sec- 
tions in town 7, ranges 15 and 16, were annexed to the town 
of Jefferson. 

The county of Calumet was incorporated into one town 
with the name of Manchester. 

The county of Marquette was created into a town with 
the name of Marquette. 

The county of Winnebago was formed into one town, the 
name of which was changed from Butte des Morts to Win- 
nebago. 

In Brown county the boundaries of the towns of Depere, 
Green Bay and Kaukaulin were defined and prescribed. 

In Racine county the town of Pike was organized out of 

town 2, range 22, into a separate town; that part of the 

town of Pleasant Prairie comprised in fractional town 1, 

range 23 east, was annexed to the town of Southport; sec- 

■ 27 



418 HISTORY OF THE TERRITOEY OF WISCONSIN. 

I 

tion 31, town 3, range 22, was set off from the town of Paris 
and annexed to the town of Mount Pleasant; and lot 5, in 
section 9, town 3, range 23, was excluded from the village of 
Racine. 

Acts were passed authorizing the laying out and estab- 
lishing eighteen different Territorial roads to and from the 
several points named in such acts. 

Acts were passed authorizing the construction of dams 
on navigable rivers as follows: 

On the Fox River in the county of Racine, on sections 2 
and 11, tow^n 3, range 19, in the town of Rochester; and in 
section 32, same town and range, in the town of Burlington. 

On Rock River in section 36, town 3, range 12, in town of 
Janesville, and on section 21 or 16 in town 4, range 12, in 
the town of Fulton. 

On the Milwaukee River, in section 23, town 9, range 21 
east, in Washington county. 

Also, amendments of laws heretofore passed, authorizing 
dams on the Manitowoc and Menomonee rivers. 

The trustees of the village of Racine were empowered to 
levy and collect a special tax not exceeding five thousand 
dollars annually, for three j^ears, for the purpose of con- 
structing a harbor at the mouth of Root River. 

Congress having authorized the Legislature to provide 
by law that the offices of sheriffs, judges of probate, and 
Justices of the peace might be made elective by the people, 
an act was passed that there should be a general special 
election on Monday, the first day of May, 1843, for the elec- 
tion of those officers. 

An act was passed to incorporate the Prairieville Manu- 
facturing Compan}^, for the purpose of manufacturing flour 
and other commodities for market. 

The act passed in 1839 to incorporate " The State Bank of 
Wisconsin" w^as repealed. 

As showing the feeling of opposition to agitation of the 
question of slavery, which then existed, mention is made of 
the fact that a resolution granting the use of the Council 
Chamber to the Rev. Mr. Matthews to deliver an anti- 
slavery address, received but three vote^ (Messrs. Baker, 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1843. 4] 9 

Crocker, and Hugunin), while the other ten members 
all voted against it. A like resolution, granting the Repre- 
sentatives' Hall for the same purpose, was the next day de- 
feated in the House by a vote of 7 to 18. 

The receivers of the Bank of Mineral Point, appointed in 
1841, submitted their report to the court in January, 18-43, 
which showed that nearly all the assets, consisting of liabil- 
ities of foreign debtors, in Saint Louis, New York, and Bos- 
ton, had been absorbed by attaching creditors, and that 
there was little or nothing left for the less fortunate 
creditors. 

In the latter part of the year 1843, the village of Platte- 
ville, was visited with that terrible scourge, the small pox, 
in its most virulent form. Quite a number of its most prom- 
inent citizens, in the full vigor of matured manhood, were 
victims of the terrible disease, and in numerous instances 
with fatal results. The whole number of cases was 153, of 
which nine proved fatal. 

Hon. Stevens T. Mason, the last Governor of the Terri- 
tory of Michigan, while Wisconsin was under its juris- 
diction, and the first Governor of the State of Michigan, 
and whose name is inseparably connected with titles to lots 
in the city of Madison, died in the city of New York on the 
4th of Januar3% 1843, of suppressed scarlet fever, after a 
sickness of four days. 

The election for Delegate in Congress in 1843, w^as con- 
ducted on party grounds, so far as nominations by party 
conventions could make it political. 

The Democratic convention assembled at Madison on the 
10th of July, and placed in nomination General Henry 
DoDGi-:, with entire unanimity. Marshall M. Strong, pre- 
sided. 

The Whig convention assembled at Madison on the 2oth 
of July, and resulted in 27 votes for George W. Hickcox 
and 17 votes for William S. Hamilton — Col. Hamilton 
withdrew his name, and Gen. Hickcox was nominated 
wnthout opposition. 

The canvass w^as animated and resulted in 4,685 votes for 
General Dodge and 3,184 for General Hickcox. 



420 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



The following is the official canvass in detail by counties: 



Counties. 



Brown 

Calumet .... 
Crawford ... 

Dane 

Dodge 

Fond du Lac 

Grant 

Iowa 

Jefferson 

Manitowoc. . 
Milwaukee . . 

Portage 

Racine 

Rock 

St. Croix.... 
Sheboygan. . 
"VVal worth . . . 
Winne'bago . 
Totals. 



m 

o 
p 

o 
P 

Ph 

m 
K 



81 

49 
133 
157 

41 

49 
670 
585 
184 

29 
930 

85 
748 
280 
171 

21 
468 

14 



4,685 



o 
o 

o 



o 

w 
C 



117 

35 

52 

152 

32 

17 

5G0 

483 

155 

3 

351 

52 

490 

222 

61 

27 

355 

20 



3,184 



a 

A 

O 

o 

p. 

e 

O 
>-5 



11 



115 



11 
12 



a 






153 



19 



25 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 421 



CHAPTER XXV. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1844. 

The legislation of the paternal government at the first ses- 
sion of the twent^^-eighth Congress, between December, 1843, 
and June, 1844, resulted in greater good to the Territory, than 
that of any former session, or of all the three next preced- 
ing it. 

An appropriation of twenty thousand dollars was made 
"for continuing the works at the harbor at Milwaukee, Wis- 
consin" which had been commenced under an appropriation 
made at the preceding session. This appropriation was 
placed in the general river and harbor bill, which associa- 
tion secured for it in the future its proper share of the fos- 
tering care of the government, which might be bestowed 
upon other works of a like character. 

Two separate and special acts were also passed, each hav- 
ing a single object. One appropriated twelve thousand five 
hundred dollars "for the construction of a harbor at the 
town of Southport" and the other appropriated a like sum 
"to aid in the completion of a harbor already commenced by 
the citizens of Eacine at the mouth of Root river.'' 

The annual appropriation "for compensation and mileage 
of the members of the Legislative Assembly, pay of their 
clerk, librarian and superintendent of public buildings, print- 
ing, stationery, fuel, lights, arrearages of previous sessions 
and all other incidental and miscellaneous objects" was only 
seventeen thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, that be- 
ing the amount of the estimate furnished by the Governor. 
This was for the fiscal year ending June oOtlo, 1845, and was 
in the general civil and diplomatic appropriation bill. 

Another act was passed of great importance to the town 
of Potosi, and to the improvement of the approaches to the 
banks of the Mississippi River, near that place. 

Section 34, town 3, range 3 west, containing G40 acres of 
valuable land, was one of the numerous tracts which had 
been reserved from sale by the Government in consequence 
of its supposed mineral character. Numerous settlements 
had been made upon it, and a large portion of it, probably 



422 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the whole, was " claimed" by " squatters," some claiming 
only a small lot for a residence, and others, several acres, 
and a large part of the town of Potosi was built upon it. 

An act was passed, in conformity with a memorial of the 
Legislative Assembly, granting this section to the Territory 
" for the purpose of improving Grant River, known as the 
Grant Slue at the town of Potosi." It provided that the land 
should be surveyed and divided into lots and be sold and 
disposed of in such manner, and under such regulations and 
restrictions as the Legislature should establish; provided, 
that pre-emption rights should be granted to actual settlers 
and occupants. 

This act was approved June 15, 1844, and practical effect 
could not be given to it until the Legislative Assembly, at 
its next session, should establish the necessary " regulations 
and restrictions." 

Another act was passed by Congress at the same time 
which provided " that it should be competent to the Legis- 
latures of the several Territories to re-adjust and apportion 
the representation in the two branches of their respective 
bodies, in such manner from time to time as may seem to 
them just and proper. And that justices of the peace and 
all general officers of the militia, in the several Territories, 
shall be elected by the people in such manner as the respec- 
tive legislatures thereof may provide." 

The second session of the fourth Legislative Assembly 
convened at Madison on the 4th of December, 1843. 

There were two changes in the membership of the Coun- 
cil and three in the House of Representatives. Messrs. 
Heath and Hugunin, of Racine county, had resigned their 
seats in the Council, and Marshall M. Strong and Michael 
Frank were elected as their successors. 

In the House, Col. Hamilton, of Iowa county, resigned, 
and George Messersmith was elected to succeed him. 
Messrs. Judson and Van Vliet, of Racine county, resigned, 
and Levi Grant and Ezra Birchard were elected to fill the 
vacancies. 

In the Council all the members were present on the first 
day except Dr. Barber of Jefferson who appeared on the 
fourth. In the House there was a full attendance at the 
opening of the session except that Mr. Hicks of Grant 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1S44. 423 

county did not take liis seat until the 11th of December, and 
Mr. Long of Iowa until the 5th of January. 

In the Council, after a temporary organization, Marshall 
M. Strong of Racine was elected President, Ben C. East- 
man of Grant, Secretary, and Geo. C. S. Vail of Milwaukee, 
Sergeant-at- Arms. 

In the House George H. Walker of Milwaukee was ap- 
pointed Speaker pro tern, on its assembling, and on the sec- 
ond day was elected permanent Speaker. JohnCatlin was 
re-elected Clerk, and John W. Trowbridge of Racine was 
elected Sergeant-at- Arms. 

Richard F. Cadle, who for several years had been a mis- 
sionary of the Episcopal church at Green Bay, was elected 
Chaplain of the Council, and Jesse L. Bennett was elected 
Chaplain of the Housa 

On the 2Gth of January, Mr. La'Chappelle of Crawford 
county resigned his seat as a member of the Council. 

Hon. Lewis P. Linn, senator in Congress from Missouri, 
from 1833 until his death in 1843, had taken a lively and ef- 
fective interest in every measure designed to promote the 
interests of Wisconsin. 

On the morning of the first day of the session, and before 
the delivery of the Governor's message, the following reso- 
lutions were adopted by the Council: 

" Resolved, by the Council (if the House of Eepresentatives concur) that the Legisla- 
tive Assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin have learned with feelings of deepest regret 
the death of Hon. L. F. Linn, late a Senator in Congress from the State of Missouri; that 
by his death his family have been deprived of a most affectionate and amiable head; 
Congress of a true patriot and able statesman; his own stale of a most able and efficient 
representative; the whole west of a firm and ever ready advocate of its best interests; 
and the Territory of Wisconsin in particular of one who has been on all occasions its reso- 
lute and devoted friend, and to whom it is deeply indebted for his zealous activity in its 
behalf in the body of which he was a member. 

" Resolved, that as a testimony of the respect which the Legislative Assembly entertain 
for the memory of the Hon. Lewis F. Linn, both houses will immediately adjourn." 

The Council then adjourned. 

The resolutions were on the same day adopted by the 
House of Representatives, which then immediately ad- 
journed. 

The Governor's message opened with the expression of 
his opinion that 

" The people, only in the exercise of their sovereign power as an independent State, can 
correct the evils which appear to be incidental to this colonial form of government, in its 
judicial, legislative nd executive departments." 



424 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

It next informs the Legislative Assembly of what they 
already knew too well, that 

"The appropriation by Congress for tlie fiscal year 1844, to defray the expenses of the 
Assembly, will not allow a session to be held the usual term of seventy-five days," and 
expresses " the hope that your present session may be as short as the public interests wUI 
permit." 

Attention is called to the indebtedness of the Territory 
and provision for its payment recommended. 

The revision of the laws in relation to taxation and the re- 
duction of taxes are recommended. 

The remainder of the message, being more than five sixths 
of the whole of it, is devoted to the expression of the opin- 
ions of the Governor, that the " Fifth State " to be formed 
under the ordinance of 1787, has the right, notwithstanding 
the action of Congress in the admission of Illinois and Mich- 
igan into the Union, to insist that its southern boundary 
shall be an east and west line running through the southern 
bend or extreme of Lake Michigan ; to an able argument in 
support of his opinions on that subject, and to the recom- 
mendation of 

" The passage of a law appointing a day for the free inhabitants of this district to vote 
upon the question, whetlier a permanent government shall be formed according to the 
articles of compact of 1787." 

The message further says: 

"There are now, it is admitted by every person acquainted with our settlements, more 
than sixty thousand Inhabitants within the limits of this Territory; and within the Umits 
fixed by the ordinance and subsequent acts of Congress, for the fifth state in the North- 
western territory, there is estimated to be over one himdi'ed and twenty thousand." 

The message recommended, that if there shall be a major- 
ity in favor of state government, the taking of preliminary 
measures for the formation of a state government without 
the intervention of Congress. It claims that 

"The Ordinance of 1787 grants to the people the right to form states within certain dis- 
tricts and to Congress the right to admit such states into the Union. The constitutions of 
the states of Tennessee and Michigan were formed under this provision; the right cannot 
therefore now be questioned." 

The message further says: 

"In relation to the right of a state to enter the Union with a contested boundary, there 
were several instances of unsettled boundaries between the thirteen original states when 
they joined the Union, some of which are yet undetermined, and it is not perceived why 
a new state has not the privilege to adjust her boundaries, or have them settled, in the same 
manner as an old state . It may be taken for granted, therefore, from the example of 
those states as well as that of Michigan, that this state has the right to be admitted, al- 
though her boundaries may be contested by other states. A state out of the ?77iJO?i has as 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 425 

good a right to her established boundaries, as a state in it. The form of government to 
which she may at any period of her existence be subject, neither increases nor diminishes 
this right. It cannot be conceded that the right to admit can control the right to form 
a constitution, further than to require that the constitution is republican and in conformity 
to the princiijles contained in the articles of compact." 

So much of the Governor's message as relates to the ex- 
pediency of forming a State government was referred to a 
joint select committee composed of Messrs, Martin and 
Crocker of the Council, and Messrs. Ellis, Price and 
Grant of the House. 

While the subject was under consideration another ques- 
tion arose, intimately connected with the question of the 
wisdom of changing the form of government from Terri- 
torial to State, a question which excited great interest among 
the people of the Territory, which was reflected by their 
representatives, and which was in a great measure similar 
to the questions out of which the political party known as 
'' Know Nothings, " or as it styled itself " American " had its 
origin. 

The fifth section of the organic act of the Territory con- 
tained a proviso 

"That the right of suffrage shall be exercised only by citizens of the United States." 

About the time of the meeting of the Legislative Assem- 
bly and for some time after, the justice and propriety of 
extending to the residents of the Territory, who under this 
proviso were denied the right of suffrage, authority to vote 
upon the preliminary question of forming a State govern- 
ment, and of participating in the election of delegates to 
form a State constitution, called out much feeling in Mil- 
waukee which to a considerable degree extended to other 
parts of the State. The expressions at Milwaukee were al- 
most unanimous in favor of the measure, and the same feel- 
ing was exhibited to a less extent in other parts of the State. 

On the other hand there were many demonstrations of 
opposition to the measure, one of the most marked of which 
was a public meeting of citizens of Jefferson, Koshkonong 
and Oakland, held at Fort Atkinson on the loth of January, 
1844, which resolved that they 

"Solemnly protested against the passage of any law that would extend the elective 
franchise to foreigners." 

In Grant county the opposition to the passage of the law 
was quite extensive and very decided. 



426 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

On the 4tli of January, as the journal reads — 

"The Speaker laid before the House the petition of Solomon Juneau and John AVhite, 
Esquires, and twelve hundred and eighteen others, relative to State Government and the 
right of foreign born citizens to vote." 

A struggle immediately ensued between the friends of 
the measure and its opponents on the question of the refer- 
ence of the petition, the former desiring its reference to the 
committee on Territorial affairs and the latter opposing it. 
The result soon exhibited the strength of the opposing 
forces, and the proposed reference was carried by a vote of 
15 to 7, with four absent. 

A strong lobby was present advocating the measure, the 
acknowledged leaders of which were Isaac P. Walker, 
Francis Huebschmann and John White. There was no 
organized outside opposition to the bill. 

The committee on Territorial affairs was composed of 
Messrs. Darling, Elmore, Grossman, Parsons and Hun- 
kins. 

The committee on Territorial affairs by Dr. Darling, its 
chairman, on the 9th of January, reported — 

"A bill in relation to the qualification of voters for State Government, and for the elec- 
tion of delegates to form a State constitution." 

The following is the text of the bill: 

"Section 1. That whenever the question of forming a State Government in Wisconsin 
Territory shall be submitted to the people thereof, all the free white male inhabitants 
above the age of twenty-one years who shall have resided in said Territory three months 
shall be deemed qualified and shall be permitted to vote upon said question. 

"Sections. That at any election hereafter to be held in this Territory for the purpose 
of choosing delegates to form a constitution and State Government for the people of said 
Territory, all the free white male inhabitants thereof above the age of twenty -one years, 
who shall have resided in said Territory three months next preceding such election, shall 
be deemed qualified and shall be permitted to vote for such delegates." 

All the members of the committee concurred in the re- 
port except Mr. Elmore, who was understood to be opposed 
to the bill, and voted against it on its final passage, although 
he made no minority report. 

Several amendments were offered to the bill and a motion 
to indefinitely postpone, all of which were defeated by large 
majorities, one of which amendments, in view of subsequent 
events, is worthy of being preserved. It was offered by Mr. 
Bartlett, and was to strike out the word white wherever it 
occurs. The only votes in favor of it were those of Messrs. 
Bartlett, Elmore, Hopkins, Olin, and Thompson, and 
there were twenty-one against it. The bill was then ordered 
to be engrossed, and on the next day — January 16th — it 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 407 

passed in a full House by a vote of 22 to 4 — tile negative 
votes being given by Messrs. Elmore, Hicks, Thompson, and 
Tripp. 

In the Council several amendments were offered, all of 
which wefe defeated; one of which was, that the residence 
of the voter preceding the election sliould be six months in- 
stead of three. The amendment to strike out the word 
"white" was made by Mr. Whiton, and obtained five votes 
to six against it. 

Mr. Whiton also offered the following amendment : 

"Provided, That the subjects of any foreign state with which the United States may be 
at war, shall not be entitled to vote on said question." 

This was voted down by five to six. 

Another amendment offered by Mr. Whiton was : 

"Provided, That the said inhabitants who shall be allowed to vote, shall be able to 
speak the English language." 

This was lost, one to ten, Mr. Whiton alone voting for it. 

An amendment offered by Dr. Barber to strike out the 
second section was lost, without a division. 

The bill was then ordered to a third reading, and on the 
next day — January 18 — was passed by a vote of 8 to 3 in 
the same words in which it was originally reported in the 
House. Those who voted in the affirmative were Messrs. 
Frank, La'Chappelle, Martin, Newland, Rountree, 
Marshall M. Strong, Moses M. Strong and White. Those 
who voted in the negative were Messrs. Barber, Dewey 
and Whiton. Messrs. Baker and Crocker were excused 
from attendance. 

The joint select committee appointed on the 8th of Decem- 
ber, to which the subject of State government had been 
referred, had not yet made any report, when on the loth of 
January, Mr. La'Chappelle introduced a bill to submit the 
question to the people. 

The bill provided for an election to be held on the first 
Monday of April, for or against State government, and if a 
majority should vote in favor of it, the Governor was to 
issue a proclamation as soon as might be, for delegates cor- 
responding with the number of members of the Legislature 
from the several districts, to a convention for the fori. i.ii ion 
of a State Constitution. If the bill had become a law, and 
a majority had voted in favor of a State government, the 
constitution would probably have been formed and submit- 
ted to the people by midsummer. 



428 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF "WISCONSIN. 

The bill was referred to a select committee, consisting of 
Messrs. Moses M. Strong, La'Chappelle and Frank, which 
on the next day was reported back by a majority of the 
committee, with the following substitute : 

"Thatat the general election to be held iu this Territory on the fourth Monday of Sep- 
tember next , aU persons who shall be authorized by any law of the Territory, which has 
been or which may be hereafter passed, to vote on the question of forming a State govern- 
ment, shall be authorized to vote on that question at said election, by depositing with the 
judges of election a ballot, upon which shall be written or printed 'For State Government ' 
or ' Against State Government ' ; and all such votes shall be canvassed, certified and re- 
turned, in the same manner as is required by law for the canvassing, certifying and return- 
ing of votes for Delegate to Congress, and the Secretary of the Territory is hereby required 
to certify to the Legislative Assembly, at its next session, the result of such vote." 

Mr. La'Chappelle dissented from this report and sub- 
mitted a minoi ity report, and insisted in vigorous language 
upon an earlier submission of the question. 

The next day (January 16th) the joint select committee 
submitted a report which took up and combatted the rea- 
sons of the Governor in his message in favor of a change in 
our form of government, and adopted the report of a com- 
mittee of the House of Representatives submitted on 
the nth of January, 1842, and desired that it might be re- 
ceived as a part of their report. 

The result arrived at in the report was, that in the opinion 
of a majority of the committee — 

"It is inexpedient to take any measures for the formation of a State Government at 
present." 

A resolution had been introduced in the House request- 
ing the delegate to procure, if possible, the passage by Con- 
gress of an "enabling act." This was laid on the table at 
the time of its introduction, and subsequently was indefi- 
nitely postponed by a vote of 10 to 7. 

The bill introduced by Mr. La'Chappelle, in contrast 
with the substitute for it recomixiended by the select com- 
mittee, met with so little favor in the Council that the sub- 
stitute was adopted without a division. 

The only remaining question was the passage of the sub- 
stitute, or the adoption of the views of the majority of the 
joint select committee that it was "inexpedient to take any 
measures." 

The bill came up in the Council for a test vote on the 19th 
January. Mr. Crocker moved to strike out all after the 
enacting clause and insert the following: "Whereas, at 
the general election in the years 1841, 1842 and 1843, the 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844 429 

voters of this Territory by decided majorities voted against 
the expediency of forming a State government; 

"And -wnEREAs, since the last election there have been no petitions presented to the Leg- 
islature desiring any action on this subject; therefore, 

"■Resolved by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Wisconsin, 
that it is inexpedient at this time to adopt any measures or take any action in relation to 
the formation of a State Government." 

This amendment was lost, Messrs. Crocker, Dewey, 
Martin, Newland and White voting for it and the other 
eight against it. 

As an evidence of the feeling of opposition to the bill to 
allow foreigners to vote, which passed the Council on the 
previous day, the following amendment offered by Mr. 
Whiton is referred to: 

" Provided, That when a person shall offer his vote on said question who can not speak 
or understand the English language, it shall be the duty of the supervisors or judges of 
election (as the case may be) to procure some competent interpreter to interpret the 
Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the ordinance enacted 
by the Congress of the United States for the government of the territory of the United 
States northwest of the River Ohio, and also an act of the Congress of the United States 
establishing the Territorial government of Wisconsin, who shall interpret said Declaration 
and acts to said person who may offer to vote." 

Mr. White demanded the previous question, which v/as 
sustained by a majority, and, under the rules of the Council 
at that time, cut off the amendment and brought it to a 
direct vote on the engrossment of the bill for a third read- 
ing, which was carried by the following vote : Ayes — Messrs. 
Baker, Barber, Frank, Rountree, Marshall M. Strong, 
Moses M. Strong, and Whiton ; noes — Messrs. Crocker, 
Dewey, La'Chappelle, Martin, Newland, and White. On 
the ney t) day it passed the Council and was sent to the House. 

On the same day of the passage of the bill by the Council 
Mr. Ellis introduced in the House a resolution — 

"That the time has not yet arrived in Wisconsin when ' the happiness of the people or 
the prosperitj- of the country will be advanced by the adoption of a State government.' " 

The resolution was preceded by an able, argumentative 
preamble; but it was ordered, without a division, that the 
preamble and resolution be laid on the table. 

When the bill came up for action in the House, an amend- 
ment, that if a majority of the votes should be against 
State government, the same question should be annually 
submitted, was voted down — 6 to 18. 

An amendment was offered by Dr. Darling to the effect 
that if a majority of votes were for State government, that 



430 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



Congress should be requested to pass an enabling act, make 
provision for a census, and other necessary measures. The 
amendment was lost by a vote of 7 to 17. The bill was then 
ordered to a third reading, under the operation of the pre- 
vious question, by a vote of 17 to 6. Those absent or not 
voting were Messrs. Elmoke, Manahan, and Palmer. The 
other members voted for the bill, except Messrs. Darling, 
Ellis, Hicks, Hunkins, Meeker, and Price. 

On the 25th of January the bill was passed by the same 
vote, with the addition of Mr. Palmer to the affirmative 
vote and Mr. Elmore to the negative — Mr. Manahan being 
the only member not voting. 

It was approved by the Governor on the 2Gth of January, 
in the words of the substitute reported by the select com- 
miittee of the Council, except an amendment offered by the 
chairman of the committee that the votes should be depos- 
ited in a separate box. 

Notwithstanding the requirement of the act that the votes 
should be returned to the Secretary of the Territory in the 
same manner as required by law for returning votes for 
delegate to Congress, and that the Secretary was required 
to certify the result to the Legislative Assembly at its next 
session, it appears from the certificate of the Secretary, that 
only one half of the counties made any returns. The coun- 
ties which held no election, or if, they held any, made no 
returns, were Calumet, Crawford, Fond du Lac, Green, Man- 
itowoc, Marquette, Portage, Racine, Saint Croix, Walworth 
and Washington. 

The total vote as certified by the Secretary of the Terri- 
tory is 6,846, of which the footings show (in which there is 
an error of 57 votes) 1,503 for State government and 5,343 
against State government. 

The following table gives the votes of the counties which 
made returns : 



Counties. 



Br own . . . 

Dane 

Dodge . . 
Grant.. . 

Iowa 

Jefferson 



For. 



10 

92 

21 

176 

215 

303 



Against. 



54 
184 

89 

1,324 

637 

219 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 



431 



Counties. 


For. 


Against. 


Milwaukee 


459 
199 

12 

10 

4 


2,115 
."523 


Rock 


Sauk 


76 


Sheboveran 


53 


Winnebago 


19 








Totals 


1,.503 


5 343 









The consideration of these questions and especially of the 
question who should have a right to vote, brought to the 
surface the question of negro suffrage for the first time in 
the history of the Territory. 

Mr. Whiton presented the petition of six colored men 
praying that the right of suffrage might be extended to all 
persons holding real estate in the Territory or taxable prop- 
erty to the value of one hundred dollars. The Council re- 
fused by a vote of 3 to 9 to lay the petition on the table and it 
was referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. 
Whiton, Baker and Barber. 

Mr. Whiton from the select committee, reported a bill to 
amend an act to provide for and regulate general elections 
and on his motion the bill was amended by adding the fol- 
lowing proviso: 

"Provided that when a person shall offer his vote, who is in whole or in part of the negro 
blood, such person shall not be allowed to vote unless he shall be a freeholder, or shall pos- 
sess and own personal property of the value of one hundred dollars." 

The bill with the amendment was ordered engrossed by a 
vote of 6 to 5, but subsequently on the same day, the enact- 
ing clause was stricken out by a vote of 6 to 4, Mr. Frank 
having changed his vote, and Mr. Martin not voting. 

In the House a similar petition had been presented by Mr. 
Olin from inhabitants of Milwaukee, which was laid on the 
table. Subsequently two ineffectual efforts were made to 
take the petition from the table; the last failed by a tie vote 
of 12 to 12. The next day it was referred to tlie committee 
on the judiciary, and after about two weeks the committee 
reported that "it is not expedient to legislate on the subject." 
The report was accepted and the committee discharged with- 
out a division. 

Much of the Governors message was devoted to the sub- 
ject of the infringement of the boundaries of the future 



432 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

State. So much of the message as related to that subject was 
referred to a select committee, consisting of Messrs. Moses 
M. Strong, Newland and Whiton, with instructions to 
report : 

First. Whether the boundaries prescribed for the fifth 
State by the ordinance of 1787 have been infringed by the 
Government of the United States, and in what respect. 

Second. If there has been any such infringement, what 
measures ought to be taken by the people of Wisconsin in 
relation thereto, and what effect it should have on the for- 
mation of a State government in Wisconsin. 

A report was prepared by the chairman of the committee 
which was approved by the other members and submitted to 
the Council. 

The report presents the views of the committee upon 
the questions submitted to it, in the order in which they are 
stated in the resolution. 

It presents the conclusion that the boundaries of the fifth 
State have been infringed by the Government of the United 
States upon three different occasions and in three different 
particulars. 

First. By the admission of Illinois into the Union, with 
the boundaries defined in the act of admission approved 
April 18, 1818. 

Second. By the act of June 15, 1836, for the admission of 
Michigan into the Union, by which the Montreal and the 
Menomonee Rivers are declared to be the southwestern 
boundary of Michigan. 

Third. By the 'treaty to settle and define the boundaries 
between the territories of the United States and the posses- 
sions of her Britanic Majesty in North America,' etc., 
entered into at Washington, August 9, 1842. 

It then attempts to show that the conclusions of the report 
are justified by the facts and arguments which it presents. 

The facts and arguments collated in the report to show 
the infringement b}' granting to Illinois a portion of the 
Territory rightfully belonging to the fifth State, sixty-one 
and a quarter miles in width, extending from Lake Michi- 
gan to the Mississippi River, while they lacked the charm 
of novelty were exhaustive of the question, and it is believed 
are unanswerable. However interesting they inight be, the 
space they would occupy precludes their statement at length. 

In reference to the second particular, the report states 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 433 

that the southwestern boundary of Michigan between Lake 
Superior and Lake Michigan — 

" If it embraces any territory whatever is an iufriugement of our boundaries; if not by 
the words of the ordinance, at least by what was understood at the time of its adoption as 
its true spirit and fair intent and by what all camlid men would say should be its con- 
struction." 

The boundary from Lake Superior to Green Bay has been 
heretofore described. 

" This boundary," the report states, " assumes the fact, which at the time was supposed 
by Congress to exist, that the Lake of the Desert discharged its waters into the Montreal 
River; subsequent survey and exploration have proved that this is not the case, but that 
it discharges into the Wisconsin River, and is located far south of where it was supposed 
to be, and ihat the boundary line fixed by Congress is an impossible one, and that Congress 
have really given to Michigan no western or southwestern boundary. There is no bound- 
ary between Michigan and Wisconsin, and it is to be hereafter adjusted by the concurrent 
action of Congress and those States." 

In reply to what may be said 

"That the Montreal and Menomonee Rivers, through their maia channels, are fixed and 
imalterable boundaries and that all that remains is to unite them by a suitable line," the 
report says " that such a boundary violates, if not the words, at least the spirit and intent 
of the ordinance." 

The report further says : 

"If the country should become inhabited, as it now is to some extent, and as it is reason- 
able to suppose it soon will be to a much greater, the convenience of its inhabitants would 
be much better consulted by uniting them with Wisconsin than with Michigan. Their 
facilities of intercourse with Wisconsin would be much greater, and they would enjoy 
their civU and political rights to a much greater extent by being united with a people to 
whom at all times they would be contiguous, than by being connected with those from 
whom all communication would be absolutely cut off for nearly half the year." 

The report makes the following quotation from the com- 
munication of the Senators and Representatives of Michi- 
gan to the judiciary committee of the Senate : 

"Its limits (boundaries of Michigan), are fixed and immutable without the consent of the 
people. They have never claimed anything beyond those limits; they have never tran- 
scended them; they have in all their proceedings adhered to them with punctillious fidelity. 
A due regard to the ' natural boundaries ' and to the rights, political and territorial, of 
another people, whom she hopes at an early day to hail as another accession to this great 
confederacy of States, wovdd forbid her to accept any acquisition of territory north and 
west of her, as a consideration for the serious loss alluded to." 

The report concludes the second branch of the inquiry, as 
follows : 

" To review this matter tlien, it appears that the boundary between Michigan and Wis- 
consin is still open, and must so remain until settled by competent authority. That the 
boundary which Congress attempted to establish, violates the spirit, intent and fair con- 
struction of the ordinance, is not the most natural one, productive of great incon^-onience 
to all parties interested in it, and (as Michigan herself admits), one to which she had no 
28 



434 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

claim and that ' operates injuriously and unjustly upon their fellow citizens west of Lake 
Michigan, both in a political and territorial point of view,' and one which upon every con- 
sideration that has a bearing on the qnestion. ought not to be established as the perma- 
nent boundary between the two States." 

The third particular relates to the infringement of bound- 
aries by the treaty made at Washington, August 9, 1842, 
and then generally called the " Ashburton Treaty." 

The report, after stating that the nortliern boundary of 
the fifth State, was defined by the ordinance of ] 7S7 to be 
" the territorial line between the United States and Canada ", 
and that this line was the one which, by the treaty of peace 
of September 3, 1783. was thus described after entering Lake 
Superior : 

'■ Thence through Lake Superior, northward of the Isles Royal and Philipeaux to the Long 
Lake; thence through the middle of said Long Lake and the water communications between 
it and the Lake of the Woods," etc. ; 

proceeds to consider the only question which could have 
been in controversy between Mr. Webster and Lord Ash- 
burton in 1842, to wit : what and where was the " Long 
Lake " called for by the treaty of 1783 ? What water, 
whether lake, bay, estuary or river was in 1783 known and 
designated as Long Lake ? 

The Ashburton treaty designates " Pigeon River" as the 
point at which the boundary line leaves Lake Superior, and 
it defines the line thence to the Lake of the Woods. 

The report states that — 

*' What was known in 1783 as 'the Long Lake,' is what is now known as the Kamanista- 
■quia, or Dog River, and that its entrance into Lake Superior is about sixty miles north- 
east of Pigeon River. After the two boundaries separate on this coast they do not unite 
again until they unite in Rainy Lake, embracing between the two a superficies of about 
ten thousand square milts, which, by the treaty of 1843, is given to the British govern- 
ment." 

The report of the committee is quite voluminous on this 
subject, and is made up largely of extracts from the report 
of the commissioners (Mr. Barclay on the part of Great 
Britain, and Mr. Peter B. Porter on the part of the United 
States), under the sixth and seventh articles of the treaty 
of Ghent, contained in the eleventh volume of " Executive 
Documents," 1837-8 — No. 451. 

It demonstrates most clearly and incontestably that the 
boundary defined by the treaty of 1783, was the Kamanis- 
taquia or Dog River, and that the treaty of 1842, by adopt- 
ing the Pigeon River route, creates a new boundary, 
" giving," to q.uote from the report, — 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844 435 

" To the British government about ten thousand square miles of the territory, and about 
sixty miles of the lake coast, which rightfully belongs to the fifth State, and which can 
not be lawfully taken from her without her consent, which she has never given or been 
asked to give, and is an infringement of the boundary of the fifth. State, as prescribed by 
the Ordinance of 1787." 

It is difficult at this comparatively remote period to ap- 
preciate the interest which was felt in these questions at that 
time, and the statement of the remedial measures recom- 
mended by the committee can not be abbreviated without a 
failure to give an accurate idea of that feeling. It is there- 
fore quoted at length : 

" It follows as a necessary consequence, if the committee are correct in their conclu- 
sions, and our boundaries have been abridged as has been attempted to be shown, and 
that without any authority on the part of the government of the United States; that such 
action on the part of the United States government is not to any extent obligatory on the 
people of Wisconsin, but they may, whenever they think proper to form a State govern- 
ment for themselves, do so, and adopt as tlie boundaries of the State those prescribed for 
it by the ordinance, and it will be tlie duty of Congress to admit the State, with those 
boundaries, into the Union on an equal footing with the original States. 

"The committee, however, can not shut their ej-es to the consequences which would fol- 
low such a course. It can not for a moment be supposed that the state of Illinois will re- 
linquish without a struggle 8,000 square miles of the most beautiful part of the territory 
embraced within its boundaries, as fixed by the act of Congress, notwithstanding it is prob- 
able that the people living on the tract in question would be nearly unanimous in favor of 
it, and perhaps those of the extreme south part of the state, jealous of the growing import- 
ance and political weight of the north, might consent to it; j-et the vast majority of the 
state, embracing the whole central portion of it, it may well be supposed would adhere 
with inflexible tenacity to their boundaries as fixed by the act of Congress. 

"And although Michigan, while struggling to enforce her claim to the territory on her 
south border claimed by Ohio, disavowed in the most emphatic terms anj- claim or preten- 
sions to any territory west of a line drawn north and south through the straiglits of Michil- 
imacinac, yet it is not in the nature of political communities to surrender any rights, 
especially rights of territory to which any circumstances liave given them the color of claim, 
and it Is not reasonable to expect that Michigan will voluntarily surrender to us any claims 
she may have to territory west of Lake Michigan, derived by virtue of the act admitting 
her into the Union. 

"And least of all is it to be expected that the British government, ever ambitious of ex- 
tending her empire, will consent to surrender to us any portion of our territory which the 
United States have undertaken to cede to them, although the United States did what they 
had no right to do, and the treaty so far as it affects our rights is void. 

" What then would be our attitude if wd insist upon our boundaries as defined by the 
ordinance, and form a state government embracing all the territory within thorn? Wo 
should at the very threshhold of our political existence find ourselves involved in a con- 
troversy of the most serious character with the States of Illinois and Michigan and the 
Kingdom of Great Britain — a controversy in relation to boundary, which of all others is 
the most dfHcult to be amicably adjusted. What would be the result of those contro- 
versies it is impossible to foresee and unnecessary to speculate upon, for whether they 
should terminate favorably or not to our claims, the consequences could not be otherwise 
than disastrous to our prosperity. Our first duty, of course, would be to appeal to the 



436 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

United States government for its aid in protecting iis in our rights and to sustain us in 
tliose controversies which were brought upoa us by its unauthorized interference in par- 
cehng out our territory among the adjoining sovereignties. We cannot predict what 
would be the result of that appeal, but have we any very good reason to suppose that a 
government which ought to have been the guardian of our rights in our infancy, but which 
on the contrary has continued to disregard them and trample them under foot, will re- 
trace her steps and restore to us that of which we have been so unjustly deprived, when 
she cannot now do it without danger of involving herself in a controversy with those 
states to whom she has given our Territory? Most certainly not. 

"It appears to the committee then that the most politic course to be pursued under these 
circumstances is, instead of involving ourselves in a controversy in the fii-st instance with 
Illinois, Michigan and Great Britain, to appeal to the nation's sense of justice, to address 
ourselves to the Congress of the United States, and while we retain our present form of 
government, obtain if possible from the United States government redress for the in- 
juries they have from time to time inflicted upon us. 

"For that purpose the committee recommend that an address be passed by the Council 
and House of Representatives to Congress, couched in respectful and conciliatory, but 
firm and decided language, setting forth in a plain, clear mamier, the numerous unauthor- 
ized infringements of our boundaries, and caUing upon the National Legislature to declare 
whether they are disposed to redress the wrongs they have done us and in what manner. 

"It is within the power and constitutional authority of Congress to make an atonement 
for those wrongs in a manner which will at the same time promote our welfare and future . 
prosperity and benefit the general government and the general interests of the Union to 
an extent nearly, if not quite corresponding, with any liabilities she may incur on our ac- 
count. 

"We are in our infancy, just on the point of emerging from a Territorial to a State gov- 
ernment; our people are comparatively poor, although they cultivate a rich soO and are 
surrounded by rich mines, and will after a few years become as prosperous and wealthy as 
any other, and they cannot for several years spare from their present means a sum suffi- 
cient to effect those internal improvements which their necessities so imperiously require. 

"A railroad across the Territory, connecting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River, a 
distance of about one hundred and fifty miles, is a work the necessity of which is daily felt 
and the value and importance of which to the people of this Territory and of the whole 
Union would be incalculable. Within a very few years we may calculate that Michigan 
will have completed her railroad across the penmsula, and the only remaining link to be 
completed in the chain of steam commimicatiou from the Atlantic to the Jlississippi, 
would be the short distance across this Territory, and the day would not be distant when 
such a road would be found extending itself to the Rocky Mountains and over them to the 
Pacific Ocean, opening a direct trade to that ocean and its islands and to the Celestial 
Empire. 

" The improvement of the navigation of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and as connected 
with that, also a connection by means of a short canal with Rock River, and the improve- 
ment of the latter stream by slack water navigation, are projects, the importance and 
feasibility of which, especially the former, have been so often, so forcibly, and so cor- 
rectly set forth, that it is unnecessary to consume time by a repetition. The propriety of 
making an appropriation for the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin, as a matter of 
national concernment, has been repeatedly pressed upon the attention of Congress by 
the Legislative Assembly, as well as by the officers of the United States ; and it is hoped 
the day is not distant when, independent of all other considerations, it will receive that 
attention at the hands of Congress, which it so well merits. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844, 437 

" Another improvement which Congress owes it to the commerce of the world to effect, 
is the construction of a harbor at the moutli of every considerable river on the western 
shore of Lake Michigan. At the towns of Southport, Racine, Milwaukee, Sauk Harbor, 
Sheboygan and Manitowoc, harbors can be constructed at a modei-ate expense, which will 
at all times afford shelter to the exposed commerce of the lakes; and while their benefit in 
a national point of view ^^ould be incalculable, the benefit to the citizens of the Territory 
would be very great. 

"The committee can not for a moment entertain the idea that an appeal of that kind 
^^•ould be made in vain, but they firmly believe, if made in such a spirit, the Congress, well 
knowing that if not met in a corresponding spirit, that the most deplorable state of things 
imaginable must arise, would hasten to make all the atonement in its power, and that they 
would guaranty the construction by the general government of the improvements before 
mentioned, or such other reasonable equivalents as might be mutually agreed upon by the 
general government and Wisconsin. 

" Should we be disappointed in these reasonable expectations, we shall conthiue to occupy 
the same position that we now do, with this advantage, that we shall have shown to the 
world that we exhibited to the United States government a disposition in the first instance 
amicably to arrange the difticulties in which we are involved bj^ their action, and we shall 
■then have but to satisfy civilized communities that we are right in our claims and preten- 
sions to secure their sympathy and kind feeling, if not kind action; and we could then 
safely entrench ourselves behind the Ordinance of 1787, fortified by the doctrine, well un- 
derstood in this countrj', that all political communities have the right to govern themselves 
in their own way, within their lawful boundaries, and take for ourselves and our State the 
boundaries fixed by that ordinance, form our state constitution, which should be republi- 
can, apply for admission into the Union with those boundaries, and if refused, so that we 
could not be a state in the Union, we would he a, State out of the I/nioji, and possess, ex- 
ercise and enjoy all the rights, privileges and powers of the sovereign, independent State 
of Wisconsin, and if difficulties must ensue, we could appeal with confidence to the Great 
Umpire of nations to adjust them." 

In regard to the remaining branch of the inquiry: 

•'What effect this infringement should have on the formation of state government in 
Wisconsin," the report states that "' Her wisest policy is to continue under her present 
form of government, until a sufflcieut opportunity has been afforded Congress to do 
her justice." 

The committee submitted with their report an address to 
Congress, which contained a summary of the facts and ar- 
guments which were presented more elaborately in their 
report, a printed copy of "which was appended to and made 
a part of the address. 

The address was adopted by a small majority in each 
House, but it does not appear to have elicited any action by 
Congress. It was the opinion of those members of the Leg- 
islature, who opposed the adoption of the address, and of 
some others, that its tone, as well as some part of the re- 
port, were too beligerent to be best calculated to obtain con- 
cessions from Congress. 



438 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The report of Joshua Hathaway, appointed by an act of 
the last session of the Legislature a special agent to receive 
and disburse the distributive share of Wisconsin in the net 
proceeds of the public lands, under an act of Congress 
passed September 4, 1841, was on the third day of the session 
presented by Mr. Crocker, and referred to the committee 
on Territorial exependitures. It showed that the agent had 
received from the United States $1,082.45, which he had dis- 
bursed in conformity with the directions of the resolution by 
which he was appointed. 

In harmony with the views expressed by the Governor in 
his message, a bill was very early introduced in the Coun- 
cil (No. 1) " To provide the means for paying the public debt 
of the Territory." The bill contemplated giving practical 
effect to the act of the precedingsession "to provide for levy- 
ing and colleting a territorial revenue" by fixing a certain 
percentage upon the assessment roll which should be levied 
in each county. By an oversight the act had been passed 
without any enacting clause. 

That act fixed the amount of territorial tax for the year 
1843, at three eights of a mill, and provided that the tax to be 
thereafter annually levied should be such a per cent, as the 
Legislative Assembly shall have prescribed at the next pre- 
ceding annual session, and the object of this bill was to fix 
the per cent, for the year 1844. It was referred to the com- 
mittee on territorial expenditures which reported it back 
with a tabular statement of the assessments in each county, 
partly from returns and partly estimated, and showing the 
effect of different ratios of taxation. 

The following is the table so far as it exhibited the gross 
assessment in each county of all descriptions of property : 



Name of County. 



Brown 

Calumet 

Crawford 

Dane 

Dodge 

Fond du Lac 

Grant 

Green 

Iowa (including Richland) . 



Gross 

assessment! 



$500,000 00 
70,000 00 
209,000 00 
386,200 00 
70, 100 OO 
100,000 00 
600,500 00 
300, 800 00 
996, 800 00 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844 



439 



Name op County. 


Gross 

Assessment. 


Jefferson 


273,300 00 
127, 500 00 


Manitowoc 


Marquette 


10, OOO 00 


Milwaukee 


1,373,200 00 


Portage 


69,800 00 


Racine 


1,000,000 00 


Rock 


516,000 00 


Saint Croix 


70, 000 00 


Sauk 


70,000 00 


Sheboygan 


109,500 00 


Walworth 


789, 30O 00 


Washington 


350,000 00 


Winnebago. ... 


10,200 00 










Total 


88,077,200 00 







A practical objection to the passage of any bill for the 
levy of a direct tax p^rew out of the difficulty amounting to 
a practical impossibility, of ascertaining the amount of the 
debt and which of the claims of the creditors were proper 
subjects for allowance and payment by the United States; 
and which must be paid by the Territory. 

When the bill (No. 1) came up for consideration in the 
Council a majority refused to pass it or to levy any tax 
whatever. 

Another bill, ''to ascertain the indebtedness and the tax- 
able property of the Territory," had been introduced in the 
House, which finally passed both houses and was approved 
by the Governor. 

This law provided for the presentation to the Auditor of 
the Territory by creditors, of any claims against the Terri- 
tory which they had, and that the Auditor should make a 
record of the same and put some mark or device on them 
which would prevent a second registration. And further, 
that claims so registered should have a preference in pay- 
ment over any not registered. 

Another section required clerks of counties and towns to 
transmit to the Auditor an abstract of the assessments in 
their several counties or towns, and the Auditor to report 
such abstract to the Legislative Assembly. 

A joint resolution was also adopted, by which Charles M. 



440 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Baker, a member of the Council from Walworth county, 
was appointed a special agent for the adjustment and settle- 
ment of all claims upon the United States for arrearages of 
the expenses of the Legislative Assembly, under the act of 
Congress of August 29, 1842, "to provide for the settlement 
of certain accounts for the support of government in the 
Territory of Wisconsin." The agent was also required to 
ascertain and report to the Legislative Assembly the total 
amount of all outstanding and unpaid claims against the 
United States. 

At the same session the following appropriations were 
made, payable out of the Territorial treasury: 

For fees of witnesses and otliers in suit against the Bank of Wisconsin $124 91 

Against Doty and others 311 45 

Commissioner of public buildings 2G1 67 

For apprehending fugitive from justice 102 23 

Miscellaneous 34 35 

Total S834 61 

The report of the Treasurer was submitted December 16, 1848, which 

stated a balance due him on April 1, 1843, of $1,081 31 

Payments made by him April 1 to December 15 $1,404 25 

Receipts by him April 1 to December 15 890 9" 

513 28 

Balance due Treasurer December 15, 1843 $1,594 59 

A supplemental report made by the Treasurer Januaiy 5, 1844, stated 

his receipts since December 15, 1843, at $879 84 

And his payments since December 15, 1843, at 135 52 

— 744 32 

And a balance due the Treasurer January 5, 1844, of $850 27 



A few days before the close of the session a paper was 
submitted by the Auditor and Treasurer, jointly, being an 
attempt to report the amount and nature of the indebted- 
ness of the Territory. These officers state that — 

" There are no records in our offices by which we can arrive at anj' accurate estimate of 
the debts outstanding against the Territory." 

But they believe their report was correct. 

The report of these officers shows a manifest purpose to 
swell the debt of the Territory to the highest possible figures. 
An accurate footing of the several items of indebtedness 
stated in the report, shows an aggregate ainount of liabilities 
beyond assets of $57,252.17, besides the further sum of $27,148 
on account of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Com- 
pany. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844 441 

The report was so full of errors and exaggerations that it 
failed to be of any use to the Legislative Assembly. 

A bill passed both houses to abolish the offices of Auditor 
and Treasurer. It was vetoed by the Governor, and failed 
on reconsideration to receive a majority of two thirds in the 
•House, where it originated. 

Alexander Botkin was appointed Auditor October 18, 
184;5, in the recess of the Council, and continued to act under 
that appointment until the end of the session (January 31). 
He had been nominated by the Governor at an early day of 
the session for the full term, and on the 12th of December 
the nomination was rejected, all of the thirteen members 
voting against it. 

On the 25th of January, James Morrison was nominated 
for Treasurer of the Territory, and on the same day the 
nomination was rejected by a unanimous vote, all the mem- 
bers voting. 

A resolution to discontinue the prosecution of the Terri- 
torial suits was introduced in the Council by Mr. La'Chap- 
PELLE, which the Council refused to consider. A similar 
resolution was introduced in the House by Mr. Trowbridge, 
and, after consideration, was laid on the table. 

The case of the Territory against the old commissioners of 
public buildings (Doty, O'Neill, and Bird), in which judg- 
ment had been rendered against the Territory at the April 
term of court, in 1843, in Walworth county, and in which a 
writ of error was brought in the Supremo Court, was de- 
cided at the July term of the Supreme Court, 1844, when the 
judgment was reversed and the case remanded for further 
proceedings. (The case is reported in 1 Finney's R., p. 3!)('..) 
Several errors were assigned, upon three of which the judg- 
ment was reversed. One was that a witness — Morrison — 
was asked : 

" How much moue}' he had i-eceived from the commissioners, and the time of its recep- 
tion." 

Which question the Avitness declined answering for the 
reason that the answer might tend to establish a civil liabil- 
ity from him to the the Territory of Wisconsin, in a suit 
that might be brc ught against him for a breach of his con- 
tract ; the court decided that the witness should not be 
required to answer the question. The supreme court held 
this decision was error, and decide 



442 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

" That the reason given by the witness for his refusal to answer the question is not in law 
sufficient to excuse him, and that the court should have required the witness to answer." 

The second is, that the court having sustained a motion 
for a new trial, on the ground that the verdict was contrary 
to law and evidence, granted the new trial only on condi- 
tion of the payment of all costs by the plaintiff, and held 
that if a new trial was granted on these grounds, it should 
be granted unconditionally. 

The third and radical error, because it totally invalidated 
the judgment was, the rendition of judgment against the 
Territory for costs. 

'• It is a general rule," the court say, " that a judgment can not be entered against a sover- 
eignty. " By the organic act " a government was established or created composed of 
executive, legislative and judicial branches. * * * It is apparent that by 

this law, a municipal corporation or government is created subject to the control of and 
immediately connected with the government of the United States. By virtue of its incor- 
poration and as a necessary means of protecting its rights in all contracts, the Territory 
can maintain an action in the courts within its limits. By virtue of its incorporation all 
the powers and functions of sovereignty exist — subject to the supervision and control of 
the general government. * * * -por all necessary purposes of government, 

Wisconsin is a sovereignty and should be entitled to the same immunities. It is a Terri- 
tory of the United States, and therefore is considered a part of the United States, or imme- 
diately connected therewith. For these reasons we come to the conclusion that the 
Territory of AVisconsin cannot be sued in the courts of the Territory in the absence of 
express authority of law for the purpose, and that the judgment against the Territory for 
the costs expended by the defendants in this case must be reversed." 

Soon after this decision, the Superintendent of Public 
Property applied to Judge Irvin, at Chambers, for a change 
of venue, on the grounds (supported by the Superintendent's 
affidavit) of prejudice in the people of Walworth county, 
and that the defendants, or some of them, possessed an un- 
due influence over the inhabitants of said county. The 
application was entertained and the cause removed to Mil- 
waukee county for trial. At the November term of the 
court in that county, the case being called, the court (Judge 
Miller) decided that he had no jurisdiction of the case and 
ordered it back to AValworth county. The court virtually 
held that there could be but one change of venue. The 
Judge says : 

" This cause legally belonged to the jurisdiction of the District Court of Iowa county 
and was there pending until the judge of that court ordered it to be transmitted to Wal- 
worth county for trial. The court of Walworth county was by law authorized to try the 
cause, but not to order it to be transmitted to another county for trial. The statute does 
not authorize this court to try this cause." 

The suit against J. D. Doty, as treasurer of the board of 
building commissioners was continued by consent of parties. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 443 

without costs, during the pendency of the principal suit 
against the commissioners. 

The suit against James Morrison, as contractor for build- 
ing the Capitol, was ready for trial on the part of the Terri- 
tory at tJie spring term, 1S44, of the Court of Iowa county. 
James D. Doty, an important witness in the case, had been 
duly subpoenaed, but failed to appear, and the trial was put 
over. At the fall term of the court Mr. Doty, though he 
had again been subpoenaed, again failed to appear, and in 
addition to this untoward circumstance, the pleadings in the 
case could not be found by the counsel among the papers 
filed. New pleadings were prepared, and the case again 
continued. The first pleadings were soon afterward found. 

About the first of July, the commissioners of Dane county 
applied to the Superintendent of Public Property for per- 
mission to finish the Capitol. He consented to the proposi- 
tion on condition that he should have the control and 
direction of the work, and that the Territory should not be 
considered as placed under any obligations to pay the ex- 
penses incurred. The commissioners received proposals for 
doing the work, according to specifications furnished by the 
Superintendent, and the contract was let to Augustus A. 
Bird, and was promptly, and, with but few exceptions, prop- 
erly executed, at an expense to the county of about two 
thousand dollars. 

On the 20th of January a joint convention of the two houses 
was held, when John Y. Smith was re-elected superin- 
tendent of territorial property, having received twenty 
votes out of the thirty-one cast by the members in attend- 
ance. 

At the commencement of the second week of the session 
a petition of Daniel Baxter, relative to his account with 
the Territory was presented in the House and referred to a 
select committee consisting of Messrs. Masters, Crossman 
and Palmer. After an investigation of about a week a 
majority of the committee (Messrs. Masters and Crossman) 
submitted a report that there was a balance due from the 
Territory to Baxter of S899.88, and that he was entitled to 
$108,G7 for interest, being a total of $1,008.55, and the com- 
mittee reported a joint resolution that he be paid the last 
named sum. 

Mr. Palmer, two days later, submitted a minority report. 



444 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

in which he arrived at the conclusion that Baxter had 
been overpaid $847.76 for all work done on the Capitol. The 
resolution reported by the committee was adopted by the 
House and sent to the Council. 

In the Council the resolution elicited much debate on sev- 
eral different days, when finally on the 23rd of January those 
who were in favor of its adoption having become satisfied 
that it could not pass, moved that the further consideration 
of it be postponed until the first Monday of January, 1845, 
which motion prevailed by a vote of 10 to 3. 

Nearly six years had elapsed since the passage by Con- 
gress, June 12, 1838, of the act granting lands for the founda- 
tion of a University fund, and these lands had not yet been 
all selected and set apart. 

At an early day of the session a resolution was adopted 
by the Council, on motion of Mr. Crocker, that the com- 
mittee on Territorial affairs, of which he was chairman, 
be instructed to ascertain and report what portion of these 
lands had been selected by authority of the Territory, and 
whether it was expedient to provide for selecting the re- 
mainder. 

The committee through its chairman reported that the 
lands granted were two entire townships, amounting to 46,- 
080 acres. That there had been selected and approved by 
the secretary of the treasury in the Green Bay district 10,- 
248 82-100 acres, and in the Milwaukee district 10,248 53-100 
and that in the Mineral Point district 10,250 75-100 had been 
selected, the approval of which had been suspended because 
some of them were supposed to have been reserved by the 
president for mining and smelting purposes. 

That there remained to be selected 15,331 90-100 acres and 
if the suspended selections in the Mineral Point district 
were added, the whole amount to be selected and approved 
would be 25,582 65-100. 

A bill was reported to provide for the selection of these 
lands, which when it came up for consideration in the 
Council was transformed into a joint resolution, appointing 
John T. Haight of Jefferson county, who was a surveyor, 
and eminently fitted by his judgment integrity and spe- 
cial knowledge of the subject, to make the selection. In 
this form it passed the Council and was sent to the House 
of Representatives. 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 445 

In the House the resolution was amended by providing- 
that three commissioners should be appointed to select all 
the lands which should be selected in equal quantities as 
near as might be within the three land districts, and that 
Theodore Conkey should be the commissioner in the Green 
Bay district, John T. Haight in the Milwaukee district and 
George W. Lakin in the Mineral Point district, and so 
amended, the resolution was adopted. 

The Council refused to concur in the amendment of the 
House; the House insisted upon its amendments and two 
committees of conference were appointed, neither of which 
could agree and the result was the defeat of the resolution. 

Much interest had been spasmodically exhibited in the 
construction of a railroad between Lake Michigan and the 
Mississippi River, but subsequent events demonstrated that 
it was even yet too early for practical efifect to be given to 
that interest. 

In the light of subsequent experience, the ideas that were 
presented in responsible and authentic form at that early 
period of railroad history, in reference to routes, feasibility, 
cost, business and profits possess such value as to demand 
their re-production. 

A select committee of the House, consisting of Messrs. 
Price, Messersmith and Thompson was appointed to in- 
quire into the expediency of constructing a railroad from 
Potosi on the Mississippi River to Lake Michigan. 

This committee had not the advantage of any experi- 
mental survey to aid them in the suggestion of any feasible 
route, and yet one of the routes pointed out in the report is 
identical with one upon which a railroad has since been 
constructed, with the exception of a short distance between 
Potosi and Lancaster. 

This route was described as commencing at Potosi on the 
Mississippi River, and following the course of a small rill, 
about three miles to its source near the summit of a ridge 
which divides the waters of t^--? Platte River from those of 
the Mississippi, and which lurUier north divides those of 
the Platte and Grant Rivers. 

" After this ascent is overcome " the route, the report continues, " would follow in a 
northerly direction, the ridge before alluded to, dividing the waters of the Platte and 
Grant Rivers, to its intersection at the Fennimore Grove, in town six, range two west, with 
the main dividing ridge, which divides the waters which flow into the Wisconsin from 
those which flow into the Platte, Peckatonica and Sugar Rivers, and thence after inter- 



416 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

secting the main ridge it wculd follow it in an easterly direction a distance of about 
fifty miles to the headwaters of Sugar River, in range seven east." 

" From the head waters of Sugar River the line of the railroad could continue in an east- 
erly direction, crossing the Catfish or Four Lake River, or if it was highly desu'able to con- 
tinue a more level route, keeping north of the Fourth Lake ; and after getting upon the 
eastern side of the Catfish only two impediments exist to the continuation of the route to 
Lake Michigan, without expensive grading, to wit : The Fox and Rock Rivers ; and the 
features of the comitry are such that each of these streams can be approached from either 
direction, through the vallies of their respective tributaries without such ascent or descent 
as will be to any extent objectionable," * * * "And the committee are 

of the opinion that the entire route is not only practicable but that no route can be found 
in the United States of the same extent, giving the same promise of profit, upon which a 
road can be built cheaper than upon this route." 

The estimate of the first cost of the road and equipments, 
made by the commmittee, was $4,000,000. 

The following estimate of probable receipts from the 
species of freight specified was made by the committee, and 
is presented as showing the over-estimates upon some items 
and the under-estimates on others: 

25,000,000 lbs. lead at 37% cts. per 100 lbs $93,750 

1,000,000 lbs. copper at 37}^ cts. per 100 lbs 3.750 

10,000 tons merchandize and return freights at $10 ' 100,000 

100,000 bushels grain at 12}^ cents per bushel 12,500 

4,000,000 feet pine lumber at $2.50 per M 10,000 

Total $220,000 

No estimate was made for freight on live stock, the rais- 
ing of which for market was not then supposed to be among 
the possibilities, nor of zinc ores, which although then 
abundant had no practical value. 

It was estimated that the receipts from unenumerated 
freights and from passengers would pay operating ex- 
penses, and that $220,000 would be a dividend fund. 

At the preceding session of the Legislative Assembly 
(April, 1843) a joint committee was appointed to investigate- 
the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company. At 
an early day of the session of 1843-4 Dr. Darling, a mem- 
ber of the committee, submitted a report, which exhibited 
in detail the liabilities and resources of the company, the 
names of its stockholders and amount of stock paid in and 
the nature and methods of the business of the company. 

One of these methods of business was the issue of certifi- 
cates of deposit, in sums of one, three and five dollars each, 
in the form and similitude of bank bills, and apparently de- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 447 

signed to circulate as currency. The amount of these cer- 
tificates outstanding at the time of the investigation was 
over $52,000. 

The committee state that the financial concerns of the com- 
pany at the time of the examination were in a favorable 
condition, but that the issue of these certificates, intended 
to circulate and circulating as money was the exercise of a 
banking privilege and was unequivocally prohibited by the 
charter of the company, which contained a proviso that 
" nothing herein contained shall give the said company 
banking privileges," and concluded with a recommendation 
of a repeal of the charter. 

Within a few days after this report was submitted, the 
secretary of the company — Alexander Mitchell — pre- 
sented a communication to the Legislative Assembly dated 
December 21, protesting against the repeal of the charter, 
and submitting a bill for its amendment, the principal feat- 
ures of which were that a list of the stockholders should be 
filed with the Secretary of the Territory, and all changes 
be from time to time reported, and that the stockholders 
should be individually liable for all the debts and liabilities 
of the company; that the debts and liabilities of the com- 
pany should never exceed the amount of capital actually 
paid in, and that its failure for ten days to redeem in coin 
any of its evidences of debt, should be deemed and taken 
as a forfeiture of its charter. The secretary requested that 
this draft of a bill might be considered and adopted. It was 
referred to the committee on corporations with instructions 
to report on the sixth day of January. 

The committee were unable to agree upon any report and 
made none until the 19th of January when a majority and 
a minority report were submitted. 

In the meantime, on the 8th of January, the secretary ad- 
dressed another communication to the Legislative Assembly 
which, among other things, stated that the company 

" Positively denies that it has in any way, as complained of, transcended its powers. It 
"questions both the fact and the law as stated by your committee. It can not conceive 
"that the Legislature can determine its rights while acting in the threefold capacity of a 
"party interested, a jury and a court." ******* 

" The company, as it believes, relies upon its plainest rights, in insisting that the ques- 
" tion of the violation or forfeiture of a charter can only be determined by a competent 
"legal tribunal. * * * To the decree of the proper tribunal the company will 
" cheerfully submit." 



448 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The majority of the committee reported — 

"That a court of law is the proper place to determine the question whether or not the 
companyhave violated their charter." ******** 

" They are not satisfied that it would, at this time, be expedient to commence any new 
Territorial suits." 

This report was signed by Messrs. Elmore, Hopkins, and 
Parsons. 

The report of the minority was signed by Messrs. Ellis 
and Meeker, and was largely devoted to an argument to 
show a violation of its charter by the company, and that the 
passage of the bill proposed by the company would estop the 
Legislature in the future from setting up the forfeiture of 
the charter, and claimed for the Legislature the right of ab- 
solute repeal. 

The remedy proposed by the committee was the com- 
mencement of suit to vacate the charter, and for that pur- 
pose reported a joint resolution. 

When this resolution came up for consideration, an 
amendment was offered, that Congress be requested to pass 
a law approving and confirming the act of incorporation, or 
restricting it to such business operations as were intended 
to be conferred by the Legislative Assembly. 

Another amendment was offered, that Congress be re- 
quested to take similar action with regard to the Fox River 
Hydraulic Company. 

Mr. Elmore moved that the resolution and proposed 
amendments do lie on the table until the fourth day of July 
next, which was decided in the affirmative by a vote of 13 
to 11, and thus ended for that session the excitement which 
was very considerable in relation to the Wisconsin Marine 
and Fire Insurance Company. 

The act authorizing defendants who shall be defeated in 
actions to recover lands of which they have been in posses- 
sion, to recover pay for valuable improvements made by 
them on such lands, generally known as the betterment law 
was first passed at this session and with some modifications 
in its details has ever since remained a part of the law of 
the State. 

An act was passed altering and fixing the times of hold- 
ing the district courts in the second and third judicial dis- 
tricts. 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1814. 449 

Trespass upon the university and school lands, and upon 
the even sections of the canal grant, was by a law passed 
at this session declared to be a misdemeanor and punish- 
able by imprisonment. 

Some very material changes were made in the law relat- 
ing to the redemption of land sold for taxes. 

It was provided that the clerk of the board of supervisors 
should be elected annually for the term of one year. Pre- 
viously he had been appointed by the board. He was also 
required to give an official bond. 

The time for the redemption of lands sold for taxes was 
extended from two to three years, and until the recording 
of a tax deed, and the rate of interest was reduced from 
thirty per cent, to twenty-five. The provision of law limit- 
ing the time within which actions could be commenced for 
the recovery of lands forfeited for taxes to three years from 
the recording of the deeds of sale., was first passed at this 
session. 

A bill passed the House of Representatives to divorce 
Webster Pease from his wife Lucinda Pease, which in 
the Council, on motion of Mr. Whiton, was laid on the ta- 
ble "till Webster Pease, the petitioner, furnished satisfac- 
tory proof to the Council that he has notified Lucinda 
Pease of the pendency of this bill."^ No other divorce bill 
was introduced. 

The progress of the settlement of the country created a 
desire for the organization of several new counties and iu 
some instances opposition was developed. A bill was intro- 
duced to organize Portage county in relation to which 
there were petitions and remonstrances, and the bill was at 
first indefinitely postponed, and afterwards passed in a 
novel mode. 

A bill had been introduced to incorporate the Southport 
brass band, which was considered in committee of the 
whole, and was reported back with an amendment striking 
out all after the enacting clause. The bill was then laid on 
the table without any action upon the report of the commit- 
tee of the whole. Subsequently, on motion of Mr. Martin, 
it was taken up and amended by inserting the entire bill to 
organize Portage county and in that form was passed, the 
title amended so as to read " a bill to organize Portage 
29 



450 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

county for judicial purposes," and sent to the House. The 
next day it passed the House with some amendments which 
were immediately concurred in by the Council, and the bill 
to incorporate the Southport brass band became a law to or- 
ganize Portage county. 

At the same session the county of Fond du Lac was or- 
ganized and the counties of Sheboygan, Calumet and Mar- 
quette attached to it for judicial purposes. 

Dodge county was also organized and provision made 
for the location of the county seat by a board of five com- 
missioners, one in each of the four election precincts then 
existing, and one from the county at large. 

Sauk county was also organized and three commissioners 
appointed by the act to locate and establish the seat of jus- 
tice. The}'- were Noah Phelps of Green county, Charles 
Hart of Milwaukee county and John Morrison of Jeffer- 
son county. 

The first election of county officers was held on the 
second Monday of March. John E. Abbott was elected 
Sheriff, Prescott Brigham Judge of Probate and E. M. 
Hart Register of Deeds. 

The Registers of Deeds of several counties which had 
been organized from other counties, were required by law 
to procure from the records of the several counties of which 
they had previously formed a part, copies of the records of 
deeds, mortgages and other instruments recorded in such 
counties. 

The counties in which the Registers of Deeds were at this 
session required to procure such copies were Grant, Green, 
Portage and Winnebago. 

The legislative authority was exercised in setting off and 
organizing the towns of Howard, in Brown county; 
Brighton, in Racine county; Bloomfield, Hudson, Linn and 
Geneva, in Walworth county; Stockbridge, in Calumet 
county and Oconomowoc; and in declaring that Mequanego 
should be known and distinguished as Mukivonago, and that 
Nemahbin should be known and called by the name of 
Delafield. 

Special acts to incorporate the villages of Mineral Point 
and Geneva were passed. 

The erection, construction or maintenance of dams was 
authorized by law on the Peshtigo River, in town 30, range 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 451 

2o, on Rock River, in section 3 in the town of Watertown; 
on the Milwaukee River, in section 4, in the town of Milwau- 
kee; on the Oconto river, in town 28, range 21 east, and on 
Sugar River, in the town of Albany, in Green county. 

The construction of a float bridge, to rest on water-tight 
scows or boxes, with a convenient draw, across the Mil- 
waukee River, "from the foot of Water street in the east 
ward of the town of Milwaukee, to the foot of Ferry street 
in said town," which when completed should forever remain 
FREE, was authorized by a special law. 

Sidney S. Sage and his associates of the village of Racine 
were authorized to erect and maintain a free bridge across 
Root River, one end of which should be in Fourth street in 
said village. 

Territorial roads were authorized to be laid out from house 
of Seymour Wilcox near Waupun, north of Fox Lake, to 
section twenty-seven, town thirteen, range eleven east. 

From Watertown via Waterloo to intersect the Madison 
road. 

From Helena in Iowa county to Cross Plains in Dane 
count}^ 

From Lake Mills in Jefferson county to " the settlement 
now known as the Beaver Dam " in Dodge county. 

From Boatyard Hollow in Grant county to White Oak 
Springs in Iowa county. 

Acadamies were incorporated in the towns of Burlington, 
in Racine county and in Madison in Dane connty. 

The municipal authorities of the town of Milwaukee and 
of the villages of Racine and Southport were each author- 
ized by special laws to borrow money to aid in constructing 
harbors at each of these places and to levy special taxes to 
repay such loans. The sums thus authorized to be obtained 
were fifteen thousand dollars for Milwaukee, five thousand 
dollars for Racine and ten thousand dollars for Southport. 

This session was not as prolific in gubernatorial vetoes, as 
the one which preceded it. 

Four of the acts, which had passed both houses of the 
Legislative Assembly, were returned by the Governor with- 
out his approval. 

Two of these were passed by a majority of two thirds of 
each house, notwithstanding the objections of the Governor, 
the other two passed the Council by the necessary two 



452 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

thirds^ but were defeated in the House, the one lacking one 
and the other two votes of two thirds. 

One of these four acts was entitled " an act extending the 
time for the redemption of certain lands in the Territory on 
the Canal Grant." It passed the Council by a vote of 13 to 
and the House by 23 to 2. 

Another was entitled " An act to provide for the payment 
of the expenses of the Legislative Assembly therein named." 
It originated in the House, where on re-consideration it 
passed by a vote of 17 to 4, and in the Council by 7 to 0. 

Of the two defeated acts, one was entitled "An act to pro- 
vide for the election of a printer to the Legislative Assem- 
bly/' which passed the Council by a vote of 8 to 3, the vote 
in the House being 17 to 9 (not two thirds). 

The other was entitled "An act to amend an act to. pro- 
vide for the election of Sheriffs, Judges of Probate, Justices 
of the Peace, and for other purposes." The vote in the 
Council upon reconsideration of this act was 11 to 0, and in 
the House was 16 to 10, being two less than the requisite 
two thirds. 

It must not be supposed that the dignified attention of the 
members to their ordinary duties, was not occasionally re- 
lieved by some displays of wit and exhibitions of mirth. As 
an illustration the following incident is mentioned : A 
member from one of the western counties had introduced 
into the House of Representatives a memorial to the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury for the purpose of correcting some 
abuses which were complained of, in the manner in which 
the United States Marshal disbursed — or failed to disburse 
— the public moneys provided for paying expenses of the 
courts. The language of the memorial was mere fustian 
and rodomontade ; and contained, among other things, the 
expression, that during a certain period of time the marshal 
had not paid out " one solitary cent." It was allowed to 
pass the House as an act of courtesy to the member who 
introduced it. When it came before the Council, Col. 
Crocker moved to amend by inserting between the words 
" solitary" and " cent," the word " red," so as to read " one 
solitary red cent." The amendment was adopted, and the 
memorial returned to the House with the amendment. The 
House refused to concur, and the Council refused to recede, 
and the bombastic memorial was lost. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1844. 453 

On the ]7th of January the Adjutant General sent to the 
Council, in conformity vv^ith a resolution which it had 
adopted, a report stating that the moneys received by him 
during the years 1841, 1842 and 1843 were $310.83 ; expendi- 
tures $241.50, and balance on hand $75.32. 

Memorials to Congress were adopted, asking for appro- 
priations for the completion of the improvement of the Fox 
and Wisconsin Rivers ; 

For a re-appropriation of certain moneys to complete a 
light house on Grassy Island, near the mouth of Fox River ; 

For a donation of land to improve the Grant Slough ; 

For the laying out of a road from Prairie du Chien to 
LaTointe on Lake Superior, and 

For the indemnification of Elbert Dickinson for dam- 
ages sustained by him, by reason of the forcible possession 
and occupation by V/innebago Indians of his farm and 
buildings near the site of the present village of Columbus, 
and the consumption of his provisions. 

A joint committee who w^ere instructed to report 

" How long the present session of the Assembly can continue, consistent with keeping the 
expenses within the ai>propriation of $17,275, and the cause of the decrease of the appro- 
priation from former .years", 

reported that with rigid economy the appropriation would 
defray the expenses of the session of sixty days. That the 
reason of the deficiency in the appropriation is an error of 
the Governor in making out his estimates of the expenses of 
this session. 

On the 8th of January, a joint resolution was passed that 
the session should terminate on the 2t)th January. On Sat- 
urday, the 27th January, a resolution passed the House re- 
scinding that resolution and declaring that the session 
should terminate on the 1st day of February. On the same 
day the resolution was amended in the Council by substitut- 
ing the 31st of January, and late in the evening of that day 
the House concurred in the amendment of the Council, and 
on the 31st of January, after a session of fifty-nine days, 
both houses were adjourned sine die, having previously 
passed an act that hereafter the annual session of the Leg- 
islative Assembly should commence on the first Monday of 
January, in each year. 

About the first of April, Mr. Robert D. Lester, sheriff of 
Crawford county, while descending the Mississippi alone in 



454 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

a canoe, was murdered by an Indian lying in ambush about 
one hundred miles above Prairie du Chien. 

The year 1844, although in "the States" it witnessed a 
most exciting political contest, resulting in the election of 
James K. Polk over Henry Clay, was comparatively de- 
void of political interest in Wisconsin. The interest was 
limited to the election of members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and county officers, there being no election for 
Delegate to Congress. 

A convention of the Democratic Whig members of the 
Legislature and other Whigs of the Territory was held on 
the 30th of January, when John M. Capron, John H. 
RouNTREE, George Messersmith, George H. Slaughter, 
M. M. Jackson, Alonzo Platt, Glendower M. Price, A. W. 
Stowe, Jared Thompson and James Tripp were appointed 
delegates to attend the National Convention of the Whigs 
to be held at Baltimore, in May, for the purpose of nomi- 
nating a Whig candidate for the presidency, 

A committee of six was appointed to report a preamble 
and resolutions expressive of the sense of the convention, 
and report the same at the evening session. At the even- 
ing session the committee, through its chairman, M. M. 
Jackson, reported a series of resolutions, of which he was 
the putative author, and which were unanimously adopted. 

RuFUS Parks was removed from the office of Receiver of 
Public Moneys at Milwaukee, and J. A. Helfenstein ap- 
pointed in his place. 

Nathaniel P. Tallmadge was appointed Governor of the 
Territory, in place of James D. Doty. His appointment 
was announced as early as July, although his commission 
was not issued until Septembei'. when Governor Doty's 
term expired- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 455 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1845. 

The ever ready and almost ever effective argument of the 
opponents of a change from a Territorial to State govern- 
ment, was the large appropriations annually made by Con- 
gress for the maintenance of civil government, and the 
consequent freedom of the people from taxation for this 
object. 

This argument was deprived of much of its force and 
effect by the smallness and insufficiency of the appropria- 
tion made by the act of March 3, 1845. 

The smallest appropriation ever before made for compen- 
sation and mileage of the members of the Legislative 
Assembly, pay of officers, printing, stationery, fuel, postage 
and other incidental and miscellaneous objects, for any ses- 
sion had been $17,975, while in other years they had ranged 
from 125,000 to more than $30,000. The appropriation in 1845 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1846, was only $13,700. 

The only appropriation for harbors was $15,000, "for the 
purpose of aiding in the completion of the harbor already 
commenced at the town of Southport." 

The harbor at the more important port of Milwaukee, 
which had attained the dignity of being placed among the 
works of national importance, shared the fate of all other 
works in the same category, which was to fail of being 
fostered or aided by any appropriations whatever. Nor did 
the harbor at Racine or any other lake port receive aid at 
this session of Congress. 

The sum of ten thousand dollars was appropriated for the 
construction and improvement of roads in the Territory, 
which was distributed as follows : 

" From Sheboygan by way of Taychedah and Fond du Lac to the Fox River in the vicin- 
ity of Green Lake, $3,000." 

" For repairing the United States military road between Fort Howard and Fond du Lac, 
$2,000." 

"From Southport, by way of Geneva to Beloit, 35,000." 

Pursuant to the law passed at the last session, changing 
the time of its annual meeting to the first Monday of Janu- 
ary, the fourth Legislative Assembly commenced its third 
session on the 6th day of January, 1845. 



456 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Six of thirteen members of the Council had resigned and 
new members had been elected to fill the vacancies, while a 
new election had been had for the entire body of the House 
of Representatives. 

In the Council, Randall Wilcox was elected, vice Mor- 
gan L. Martin, resigned. In Milwaukee county Jacob H. 
Kimball, James Kneeland and Adam E. Ray were elected, 
in place of Hans Crocker, David Newland and Lemuel 
White, resigned. The place of Theophalus La'Chappelle, 
of Crawford county, resigned, was filled by Wiram 
Knowlton, and John Catlin, of Dane county, was chosen 
to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Lucius I. 
Barber, of Jeff'erson county, in the same district. 

The following members constituted the House of Repre- 
sentatives: 

Brown county and the counties attached: Abraham 
Brawley, Mason C. Darling and William Fowler. 

Craivfo7'd and St. Croix: James Fisher. 

Dane, Dodge, Green, Jefferson and Sauk: Charles S. Bris- 
tol, Noah Phelps and George H. Slaughter. 

Or ant: Thomas P. Burnett, Thomas Cruson and Frank- 
lin Z. Hicks. 

loiva: James Collins, Robert C. Hoard and Solomon 
Oliver. 

Milwaukee and Washington: Charles E. Brown, Pitts 
Ellis, Byron Kilbourn, Benjamin H. Mooers, William 
Shew and George H. Walker. 

Bacine: Robert McClellan, Albert G. Northway and 
Orson Sheldon. 

Bock and Walworth: Stephen Field, Jesse C. Mills, 
Jesse Moore and Salmon Thomas. 

Eight of the twenty-six members had formerly been mem- 
bers of the Territorial Legislature. Messrs. Burnett and 
Walker were elected to the abortive session held at Green 
Bay in 1836. The former was an unsuccessful applicant 
for a seat in the Council at Belmont in 1836, and Mr. Walker 
was a member at the sessions of 1842-3 and 1843-4. Mr. Col- 
lins was a member of the House in June, 1837, and of the 
Council continuously from 1838 to 1842. Messrs. Cruson 
and Shew were both elected to the House in 1838 and served 
until 1840. Messrs. Mills and Darling were members at 
the sessions of 1840-1 and 1841-2, and Messrs. Darling and 
Hicks at those of 1842-3 and 1843-4. The other eighteen 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 457 

members took their seats in the Legislative Assembly for 
the first time. 

The Council was organized temporarily on the first day 
of the session, and on the second day permanently, by the 
election of Moses M. Strong President, Ben. C. Eastman 
Secretary, and Charles H. Larkin Sergeant-at-Arms. 

In the House, George H. Walker was appointed Speaker 
pro tem. on the first day and the next day was elected for 
the session. On the third day La'Fayette Kellogg was 
elected Chief Clerk and Chauncey Davis, Sergeant-at- 
Arms. 

The counties of Rock and Walworth had continued to 
form one election district since 1838, and in the fourth Legis- 
lative Assembly were entitled to two members of the Council 
and four members of the House, which by common con- 
sent of the people of the two counties were divided equally 
between them. But in 1845 the proportionate increase of 
population had been so much greater in Walworth than in 
Rock county, that it was provided by law that Walworth 
county should constitute one election district, with one 
member of the Council and three members of the House, 
and Rock another district with one member of the Council 
and only one member of the House. Thirty-five years pro- 
duced a wonderful change. By the census of 1880 the pop- 
ulation of Rock county was nearly fifty per cent, greater 
than that of Walworth. 

No conflicts between the Legislative Assembly and the 
newly appointed Governor disturbed the harmony of this 
session. 

Governor Tallmadge with prompt courtesy responded to 
the formal communication informing him of the organiza- 
tion of the two houses, and on the second day of the session 
met them in joint convention and delivered in person the 
customary message. 

It exhibited a marked difference with similar papers of 
his immediate predecessor: chiefl}^ in the absence of all 
claim of executive prerogative, and of any disposition to 
assume anything like dictation, and it was with the utmost 
modesty and deference to the recognized superior knowledge 
of the representatives that even a positive recommendation 
found a place in the message. 

It opened with the statement that the enactment of the 
laws devolved upon the Legislative Assembly — not Con- 



458 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

gress; and upon the Governor that of seeing them faithfully 
executed. And he added that so far as his 

" Co-operatioa is required in the enactment of laws, you will find in me a disposition to 
harmonize with your legislative action and to appreciate your patriotic motives." 

The Governor did not — 

"Deem it out of place to allude to an act passed by the last Legislature in relation to 
the qualification of voters for State government, and the election of delegates to form a 
State constitution." He "congratulated" the Legislative Assembly " on the putting to 
rest in this manner of that important question," and expressed the opinion that "the 
adoption, by a decided majority of both branches of the Legislature, of the enlightened 
and constitutional provisions of that act, will contribute to the harmony of our growing 
population, and facilitate the organization of a sound and wholesome State government 
whenever that important step shall be deemed necessary." 

He said : 

" I have no doubt of the right of the Legislature to pass such a law, as well under the 
ordinance of 1787, as on general principles, when the people, in their primaiy capacity, 
undertake the organization of a new government; " and added : " I can not now consent 
to recommend any material modification or change of the principles secured by that law, 
without doing violence to my own, and to my long- cherished sentiments of public policy 
and constitutional right." 

The message next speaks of — 

" The subject of our naturalization laws," and says : " The movement now in progress 
in various parts of the Union, to extend the period of naturalization to twenty-one years, 
is calculated, if successful, materially to abridge the rights which this portion of our pop- 
ulation (foreigners) have expected to enjoy." 

"A more efficient organization of the militia" is suggested, 
with the statement that — 

" We have no sufficient returns of the numerical force of the militia to enable us to 
receive from the general Government the quota of arms to which we should otherwise be 
entitled;" and the remedy is left to the better judgment of the Legislature. 

A liberal portion of the message is devoted to remarks 
upon the subject of internal improvements — particularly 
the improvement of the navigation of the Fox and Wiscon- 
sin rivers — a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Missis- 
sippi River, roads generally, and plank roads particularly, 
and harbors on the lake coast. The importance of all these 
is forcibly presented, but no practicable mode suggested for 
their attainment. 

The subject of the indebtedness of the Territory, as one of 
vital importance to its pecuniary interests, as well as to its 
public character, is given prominence in the message. The 
adoption of measures to ascertain its nature and extent 
are recommended and, says the message 

"When the amount is thus ascertained, let Congress be asked to do what is just in rela- 
tion to it, and in any event let means be provided for the payment of interest and the 
speedy liquidation of the principal. Let it not be said that this young and thriving Terri- 
tory sanctions, even in name, the doctrine of repudiation." 



TERRITORY OF WIS'^ONSIN IN 1845. 459 

The subject of education — the education of the great 
mass of the people — was mentioned, with the remark that 

"Whether any and wliat further measures are necessary to this object, is resijectfully 
submitted to your consideration." 

The subject of agriculture was mentioned as well worthy 
of the profoundest attention of the Legislature. Agricultu- 
ral schools, pattern farms and agricultural societies were 
favorably mentioned, and the whole subject submitted to 
the wisdom of the representatives of the people. 

The message concludes with the pious statement that 

"Our bosoms should swell with emotions of gratitude to the all-wise Dispenser of human 
events, that He has here graciously cast our lot; and our action, public and private, 
should be such as to ensure a continuance of His blessing." 

Seven hundred and fifty copies of the message were or- 
dered to be printed in the German language, a precedent 
set for the first time, which has since been frequently 
followed. 

The emphatic vote of the inhabitants of the Territory at 
the recent election in September in opposition to the forma- 
tion of a State government, which question had then for 
the first time been submitted to them with Legislative sanc- 
tion, appeared to have set at rest, at least for this session, 
the further agitation of that question. The Governor, in 
his message referring to the recommendation of his prede- 
cessors that the necessary steps be taken for the formation 
of a State government, said — 

"Desirous of conforming my action to an ascertained public sentiment, it would not 
become me at this time to renew that recommendation." 

A bill, however, passed the Council by a vote of 9 to 3, 
which provided that at every annual election thereafter, a 
vote should be taken for or against State government, and 
the result returned to the Legislative Assembly. This bill 
was defeated in the House by a vote of 12 to 13. 

The only perfected action of the Legislative Assembly 
upon the subject was the passage of a joint resolution re- 
questing the delegate in Congress — 

"To urge upon that body the passage of a law making an appropriation to defray the 

expenses of taking a census of the Inhabitants of the Territory preparatory to the f orma- 

t ' 
tion of a State government, and also to make an appropriation to provide for the expenses 

of holding a convention to form a constitution and State Government." • 

This resolution was not passed until the 24th of February, 
and Congress adjourned on the 3d of March, without pass- 
ing any law upon the subject. 



460 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Opposition to the act of the last session in relation to the 
qualifications of voters for State government and for the 
election of deleg'ates to form a State constitution, was very 
early developed in the House of Representatives. It was 
able, determined, well directed and persistent, but futile. 
It was lead by Mr. Burnett of Grant county, assisted by 
Messrs. Collins of Iowa, Slaughter of Dane, and seven 
others. 

Immediately upon the organization of the two houses 
Mr. Burnett gave notice of the introduction of a bill to 
repeal the act, and subsequently, for that purpose, intro- 
duced the first bill of the session. 

The bill came up for consideration on the 27th of January, 
when Mr. Darling proposed an amendment by striking out 
all after the enacting clause, and inserthig the following : 

" That no person shall hereafter vote upon the subject of State government, or for dele- 
gates to form a State Constitution, who shall not have resided three months within the 
Territory, and who shall not be a citizen of the United States, or shall have declared his in- 
tention to become such, as the law requires." 

The bill was fully and ably discussed from day to day, 
until the 3d of February, when the amendment offered by 
Dr. Darling was adopted, with a modification extending 
the period of residence from three to six months, and thus 
amended, it passed the House by a vote of IG to G, and was 
concurred in by the Council without a division. 

The opponents of the measure were not satisfied and re- 
newed the contest, with equal zeal, but no greater success. 
On the 15th of February a resolution was introduced, which, 
as modified, instructed the committee on Territorial affairs 
to report a memorial to Congress for the passage of a law 
authorizing the people of this Territory to form a constitu- 
tion and State government and to define the qualification 
of voters. 

Dr. Darling moved to strike out the words " and to define 
the qualification of voters ", which, after a long debate, was 
adopted and the resolution passed, in pursuance of which 
the joint resolution of instructions to the Delegate already 
mentioned was reported and passed both houses — which 
was all the action had at this session on the subject of State 
government. 

In the last chapter it was stated that the Governor's nomi- 
nation of Alexander Botkin as Auditor, and James Mor- 
rison as Treasurer, had been rejected by the unanimous vote 



TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 4GI 

of the Council. No other nominations were sent to the 
Council at that session, so that at the next session no official 
information existed showing who were the incumbents of 
these offices. 

On the 10th of January, resolutions were adopted by the 
Council, en motion of Mr. Kneeland, requesting the Gov- 
ernor to inform the Council who was the Treasurer and who 
the Auditor, when they were appointed and when their terms 
of office would expire. 

The next day the Governor answered the request by stat- 
ing that it appeared from the records of the executive de- 
partment 

" That James Morrison was Treasurer, and Alexander Botkin, Auditor; that they were 
appointed on the 3rd of February, 1844, and that their term of office would expu-e at the 
end of the present session." 

On the 4th of February, 1845, Governor Tallmadge sent 
to the Council the following nominations: 

"Jonathan Larkin to bo Territorial Treasurer in place of James Morrison, appointed 
after the adjournment of the last Legislative Council. 

" George P. Delaplaine to be Auditor of public accounts, in place of Alexander Bot- 
kin, appointed after the adjoinnment of the last Legislative Council." 

These nominations were on the same day confirmed by the 
Council without reference or a division. 

On the 20th of January, the Auditor submitted a report 
of the claims against the Territory, registered by him as 
per act of the Legislative Assembly, approved January 31, 
1844, which amounted to $6,270.64. 

The annual report of the Treasurer, submitted on the 10th 
of January, showed that the receipts during the year had 
been $1,285.33; disbursements, $3,259.18, and that there were 
yet returns to be made of the five per centum for Territorial 
purposes, from the counties of Racine, Jefferson, Fond du 
Lac^ Crawford, and St. Croix for the year 1843, and from 
the counties of Dodge, Iowa, Jefferson, Milwaukee, Portage, 
Racine, Rock, Sheboygan and St. Croix for the year 1844. 

The Secretary of the Territory submitted reports of his 
receipts and disbursements, and so satisf^.ctory was the man- 
ner in which his official duties were discharged, that on the 
last day of the session a resolution was unanimously 
adopted by the House, tendering the thanks of the House 

" For his gentlemanly deportment in his intercourse with the members thereof, and his 
punctuality and efficiency as a public officer, and in his impartiality and promptness in the 
disbursement of the public funds." 



462 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The protracted absence of Judge Irvin — especially dur- 
ing the autumn, winter and early spring — was a subject of 
much complaint; so much that a joint resolution was adopted 

"That the Hon. David Irvin, Judge of the Second Judicial District, be and he is hereby- 
requested either to remain in the Territory in the performance of his duties, so that the 
public can have the benefit of his services, oi' that he resi^ his olfice, in order that another 
person may be appointed in his place, who will reside among the people." 

An act was passed to abolish the office of Supreme Court 
Commissioner, and transfer his duties to Judges of Probate. 

The Territorial suits experienced another year's delay, 
without any definite result having been arrived at. 

Tn pursuance of the decision of Judge Miller refusing to 
take jurisdiction of the suits against Doty, O'Neill and 
Bird, the venue of which had been changed from Walworth 
county to Milwaukee, the records and papers were again 
remitted to Walworth county, and at the spring term (1845) 
of the court in that county. Judge Irvin decided that the 
venue having been changed from that county, and the case 
not having been returned by any process known to the law, 
he could not take jurisdiction. 

By direction of the Superintendent of Territorial Prop- 
erty, a writ of mandamus was applied for to the Supreme 
Court at the July term, 1845, against the District Court of 
Milwaukee county, requiring said court to try the cause. 
The Supreme Court, at the same term, directed that a per- 
emptory writ of mandamus do issue, to the District Court 
of Milwaukee county, commanding that court to — 

" Proceed to trial of said cause, in the same manner, and to give judgment and award 
execution a3 though the said cause had not been removed." 

This decision will be found reported in 1 Pinney R., 569. 

At the next term of the court in Milwaukee county, in 
November, the cause on the part of the Territory was ready 
for trial, but on the affidavit of Augustus A. Bird, one of 
the defendants, alleging prejudice in the judge, the venue 
was again changed, and this time to Grant county, in the 
same district in which it was commenced. The practical 
effect waste postpone the trial until March, 184G, which was 
the earliest period at which any term of court was to be 
held in Grant county. 

The suit against James Morrison and his sureties, pend- 
ing in Iowa county, was continued on the affidavit of the 
defendant of the absence of a material witness. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 463 

The suit against Doty and his sureties, still pending in 
Walworth county, was continued by consent, to await the 
disposition of the suit against the commissioners. 

John Y. Smith was re-elected Superintendent of Terri- 
torial Property by joint ballot of the two houses on the 19th 
of February, having received 10 votes, to 12 for Augustus 
A. Bird and 6 scattering. 

The Baxter claim, arising out of work done upon the 
Capitol, was again before the Council, and the committee on 
Territorial affairs reported in favor of an allowance of 
$1,008, but the report failed to receive the favorable action 
of the Council, and went over the session without action. 

In a suit which had been commenced by William 
Doughty against the Territory, upon a bond issued to aid 
in the construction of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal, 
it was decided by Judge Irvin, of the Second District, that 
the Territory could not be sued. 

The decision appears to have been acquiesced in, and the 
case carried no further. 

The friends of the policy of providing a permanent though 
moderate Territorial revenue for the payment of the debt 
of the Territory, were more successful at this session than 
at the preceding one. 

The amount of indebtedness registered by the auditor 
under the act of the last session was only a little over $G,000, 
yet it was well known that a much larger sum was out- 
standing which had not been registered. 

During the third week of the session a bill was introduced 



'» 



in the Council by Mr Kneeland "To provide means to pay 
the public debt of the Territory." It was referred to the com- 
mittee on Territorial expenditures which reported it back 
without amendment. It was subsequently referred to a select 
committee of one from each election district, consisting of 
Messrs. Rountree, Knowlton, Catlin, Baker, Kneeland, 
Marshall M. Strong and Moses M. Strong, which reported 
an amendment. Afterwards it was referred to the com- 
miittee on the judiciary under instructions, in conformity 
with which a substitute was reported by that committee, 
which subsequently passed both houses without material al- 
teration, and was substantially the law which was enacted. 
The act prescribed the mode of assessment in the several 
counties. It then provided for the annual levy in each of 



464 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the counties of a Territorial tax of one and a half mills on 
the dollar on the assessed value of the property within such 
county, which was to be collected by the county treasurers 
and by them paid over to the Territorial Treasurer. 

Evidences of Territorial indebtedness issued by authority 
of law were receivable in payment of the Territorial tax, 
and it was made the duty of the Auditor to issue warrants 
on the Territorial Treasurer for such indebtedness, in such 
sums as the creditor might elect, corresponding in the ag- 
gregate with the amount of such indebtedness. 

The Territorial indebtedness was further increased by an 
appropriation of two thousand, six hundred and sixteen 
dollars to the county of Dane, the amount expended by 
said county in the completion of the Capitol, payable out of 
any money in the Territorial treasury, not otherwise appro- 
priated, after all the debts then existing against the Terri- 
tory should be paid, and not before. 

An act to divide the county of Crawford and to organize 
the county of Chippewa, provided: That the county of 
Crawford should be limited to that district of country which 
lies north of the Wisconsin and east of the Mississippi 
Rivers, and south of a line beginning at the mouth of Buffalo 
River, thence up the main branch of said river to its source, 
thence in a direct line to the most southern point on Lake 
Chatac, thence in a direct line drawn due east, until it inter- 
sects the western boundary line of Portage county, as en- 
larged by an act approved February 18, 1841; and west of 
the western boundary lines of the said counties of Portage 
and R'chland. 

It provided that all that district of country lying west of 
Portage county, enlarged as aforesaid, north of the northern 
boundary line of Crawford county aforesaid, east of the 
Mississippi River, and south of the boundaries of the county 
of St. Croix, as prescribed in the act approved January 9, 
1840, organizing said coimty, be known under the name of 
Chippewa county. 

The new county of Chippewa was organized for all pur- 
poses of county government, and attached to the county of 
Crawford for judicial purposes. The county seat was 
located temporarily at or near the residence of Mr. Lamb, 
at the junction of the Menomonee River with the Chippewa. 

Sixteen days later (February 19th) an act was approved 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 4G5 

"to divide the county of St. Croix and organize the county 
of LaTointe/' which enacted — 

"That all that district of country within the limits of St. Croix county, as prescribed by 
an act organizing said county, approved January 9, 1840, be and the same is hereby divided 
into two counties; beginning at the mouth of Muddy Island River, thence running in a 
direct line to Yellow Lake, and from thence to Lake Courterille, so as to intersect the 
eastern boundary line of the county of St. Croix at that place; thence to the nearest point 
on the west fork of Montreal River, thence down said river to Lake Superior. All that 
portion of St. Croix county as heretofore bounded, lying south of said lines, be and remain 
the county of St. Croix, and all the country Ij'ing north of said line and within this Terri- 
tory, shall be known as the county of La"Pointe." 

The county of La'Pointe was organized for all purposes 
of county government, and attached to the county of Craw- 
ford for judicial purposes. The "seat of justice" was tem- 
porarily located at the town of La'Pointe. 

An act was passed that from and after the first day of 
November, 1845, the county of St. Croix should be organized 
for judicial purposes, and form a part of the first judicial 
district, and the district court be held by the judge of that 
district on the first Monday of June annually : Provided, 
that at the next general election the qualified voters of the 
county should vote either " for district court " or " against 
district court" ; and if a majority was /or it, the act should 
take effect, otherwise it should be void. 

Vv^ashington county Avas organized for judicial purposes 
from and after the second Tuesday of April, and made a 
part of the third judicial district, the judge of which was 
required to hold court on the second Tuesday of September, 
1845, at the school-house at the county seat, unless the county 
commissioners should, sixty days before that time, name 
some other place in an order to be filed with the clerk of the 
court, and thereafter the regular terms were required to be 
held on last Tuesday of March and the second Tuesday of 
September in each year. 

In Dodge county, the county seat was located in this wise 
at a place afterwards called Juneau, in honor of Solomon 
Juneau. 

An act was passed which provided that whenever the 
owner or owners of the land at and about the quarter sec- 
tion stake dividing sections numbers 21 and 22, in township 
11 of range 15 east, should lay out into a town plat forty 
acres of land, of which the said quarter section stake shall 
30 



466 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

be the center, reserving a square of four acres ; and when- 
ever the county commissioners should select such square as 
a site for the public buildings, and the owners should con- 
vey the said square and every alternate lot in said plat to 
the county of Dodge, then the seat of justice of Dodge 
county should be located upon the site so selected for pub- 
lic buildings. And all former acts conflicting with this 
were repealed. 

The county seat of Winnebago county was located by 
three commissioners, elected at the annual town meeting in 
April, 1845, by the white male persons who had resided in 
the county one month. This was in pursuance of a special 
law for that purpose. 

At the same session a law was passed which provided for 
an election by the qualified electors of the county, for or 
against the removal of the seat of justice of Milwaukee 
county. The vote was to be taken at the spring election, 
1846, and if a majority of the votes were in favor of " re- 
moval ", the seat of justice of said county was to be removed 
to Prairieville (now Waukesha). 

If any election was held in pursuance of this law, the re- 
turns of it can not be found, and in view of the action of the 
Legislative Assembly at the next session, dividing the 
county of Milwaukee and organizing the county of Wau- 
kesha, are of comparatively little importance. 

The system of county government was changed by law in 
Marquette county, from the "Town System," to the "County 
System," and in Brown county it was submitted by law to a 
vote of the voters of the county at the annual town meet- 
ing held in April, 1845, whether such change should be 
miade. 

Petitions for and remonstrances against the formation of 
a, new county from parts of Jefferson and Dodge counties, 
of which Watertown should be the county seat, were nu- 
7nerously signed and presented to the Legislative Assembly. 

Other petitions were presented for the formation of a new 
county, by taking the west range of towns in Dodge county 
and the east two ranges of Portage (now Columbia) county 
and the location of a county seat at Columbus. 

Both these propositions were reported upon adversely by 
a committee of the Council, and never reached a vote in 
either house. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 467 

In the House of Representatives, the committee to which 
was referred the petition of sundry inhabitants of Sauk 
county praying for the passage of a law authorizing an elec- 
tion to be held to locate the seat of justice of that county, 
reported "That in the opinion of the committee, legislative 
action at the present session is inexpedient." 

The report of the committee was accepted and the matter 
ended. 

Several amendments were adopted to the act to provide 
for the government of the several towns, and for the revis- 
ion of county government. Some of these related to the 
mode of electing town officers, and the duty of the chair- 
man and some to matters relating to schools and school 
taxes but principally to the subject of highways and mat- 
ters pertaining thereto. 

An act of Congress was passed May 23d, 1844, by which it 
was provided that whenever any portion of the surveyed 
j)ublic land not exceeding 320 acres had been or should be 
settled upon and occupied as a town site, that it might be en- 
tered at the minimum price, in trust for the occupants there- 
of, the trust to be executed in the manner prescribed by the 
legislative authority of the State. At this session of the Leg- 
islative Assembly an act was passed providing a mode in 
which such trust might be executed in relation to any lands 
in this Territory which had been entered in pursuance of 
the provisions of that act of Congress. It was supposed 
that the title to a portion of the site of Portage City, in Col- 
umbia county could be obtained in pursuance of the provi- 
sions of this act, but it was deemed more advisable to 
proceed under another law subsequently passed in 1852. 

For the purpose of enabling the inhabitants residing upon 
section twenty-five, town one, range two west, in Grant 
county, to avail themselves of that act of Congress, an act 
was passed by the Legislative Assembly at this session, con- 
stituting them a body corporate by the name of "The trust- 
ees of the village of Fairplay." But this act is believed not 
to have been effective and that the title was subsequently 
acquired in another mode. 

The act to change the corporate limits and powers of the 
town of Milwaukee, passed March 11, 1839, was amended 
by extending the corporate boundaries of the town so as to 
include section 32, town 7, range 22, and so mlich of section 



468 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

33 as lies west of the middle of the Milwaukee River, which 
were made to constitute the South ward of said town, with 
authority to elect five trustees to act in conjunction with 
the other trustees of the town. 

The powers of the board of trustees were also enlarged. 

The village of Beloit was incorporated, and the several 
acts to incorporate the villages of Racine and Geneva were 
amended. 

A bill to incorporate the village of Madison passed the 
Council, but in the House it was laid on the table and not 
again taken up. 

The towns of Lake Mills and Sullivan in the county of 
Jefferson, Beaver Dam and Hustisford in Dodge county, 
Ceresco in Fond du Lac county, and Lima in Rock county, 
were created by special acts for that purpose. 

The subject of banks and unauthorized banking occupied 
much of the attention of the Legislative Assembly. 

At an early day of the session a bill was introduced in the 
Council by Mr. Knowlton, to repeal an act to incorporate 
the Mississippi Marine and Fire Insurance Company, passed 
March 11, 1839, which had ostensibly assumed to do business 
at Sinipee, in Grant county, and which, under the authority 
to receive deposits and issue certificates therefor, had issued 
certificates of deposits in the similitude of bank notes, and 
was engaged in " banking business" in violation, as it was 
alleged, of its charter. 

The bill passed the Council without opposition. 

In the House, a motion was made by Mr. Collins, of Iowa, 
to substitute for the bill a provision that the Attorney Gen- 
eral should institute proceedings against the company for 
the purpose of vacating its charter. This motion was de- 
cided in the negative by a vote of 4 to 22, and the bill was 
then passed by a vote of 22 to 3. 

The Attorney General reported to the House of Repre- 
sentatives that in the case of the Attorney General of Wis- 
consin vs. The Bank of Wisconsin (at Green Bay), which 
had been pending in the District Court of Brown county, a 
decree had been entered that the charter of the bank be for- 
feited, and that Alexander J. Irwin be appointed the per- 
manent receiver of the institution. 

The " Bank of Milwaukee" was incorporated by an act of 
the Legislative Assembly, passed November 30, 1836, and 



TERRITORY OF WI8C0NSIN IN 1845. 459 

approved and confirmed by an act of Congress passed 
March 3, 1837. 

By an act of the T(?rritorial Legislature, approved March 
11, 1839, the act of incorporation was unconditionally re- 
pealed. 

In July, 1844, the persons who claimed to be the stock- 
holders of the bank endeavored, through Jonathan E. Ar- 
nold, their attorney, to make an arrangement with the 
Attorney General by which the question of the validity of 
the repeal of the charter might be presented to the Supreme 
Court for its decision, upon an agreed case, at a term of the 
court then in session. 

The Attorney General declined any action in the matter 
on behalf of the Territory at that term of the court and un- 
til specially authorized and instructed by the Legislature. 

At the next session of the Legislative Assembly, the bank 
by its officers applied to the Legislature to repeal the repeal- 
ing act, supported by a petition numerously signed by 
prominent citizens of Milwaukee. 

The memorial and petition were referred to the committee 
on incorporations in the Council, a majority of which sub- 
mitted a report in conformity with the wishes of the bank 
and the petitioners, accompanied by "a bill for the relief of 
the Bank of Milwaukee," which in terms repealed the repeal- 
ing act of 1839 and revived the charter. 

When the bill came up for consideration, after free dis- 
cussion in a full Council, it was indefinitely postponed by a 
vote of 9 to 4, Messrs. Kimball, Kneeland, Whiton and 
Wilcox voting in the negative. 

In relation to the Wisconsin Marine and sPire Insurance 
Company, a resolution was adopted in the Council instruct- 
ing the committee on the judiciary to inquire into the legal- 
ity of passing a law repealing its charter, with liberty to 
report by bill or otherwise. 

The committee, consisting of Marshall M. Strong, John 
Catlin and Wiram Knowlton, reported unanimously that 
" tha company have forfeited their charter " but that the 
Legislature had no power to repeal it. 

The committee recommend 

" That the Attorney General of this Territory be requested to institute legal proceedings 
against the company, that the act incorporating them may, as it ought to be, declared 
void; and that this ^soulless being' be brought to a 'lively sense' of its duties and behold its 
'enormous iniquities'." 



470 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The report was accompanied by a joint resolution author- 
izing such proceedings. The resohition was afterwards 
taken up for consideration by a vote of 7 to 5, and after dis- 
cussion was laid upon the table. It was again taken up but 
before any action upon it, the two houses adjourned. 

A resolution was adopted in the House., directing the com- 
mittee on the judiciary to inquire into the expediency of 
providing by law for the suppression of the circulation of 
bills, checks, notes, certificates of deposit or other evidences 
of debt in circulation in the Territory, as money by any 
company or corporation not expressly authorized thereto by 
law. And providing also that the circulation of any such 
issues in the form or similitude of bank bills should be de- 
clared to be prima facie evidence of the violation of the 
charter of any such corporation. 

A report was submitted by the committee, through Mr. 
Burnett, the chairman, in favor of the suppression of the 
circulation, referred to in the resolution, but adverse to the 
proposition contained in the latter clause of it. It was ac- 
companied by a bill to amend the existing law to restrain 
unauthorized banking, and give more effect and stringency 
to its provisions. 

While the bill was under consideration Mr. Collins 
moved to strike out all after the enacting clause and in- 
sert — 

'•That the Attorney General of the Territory be and hereby is directed to institute pro- 
ceedings against the Milwaukee Marine and Fire Insurance Company and the Mississippi 
Marine and Fire Insurance Company, with a view to have said charters vacated for viola 
tion of the provisions thereof." 

This motion was lost by a vote of 7 to 19, and the bill was 
then ordered to a third reading by a vote of 21 to 5, and 
passed the next day without a division. 

In the Council the bill was indefinitely postponed by a 
vote of 7 to 6, and thus ended for the session legislative 
action on the subject of banks and banking. 

Governor Doty had persisted in spelling Wisconsin with a 
"k" and an "a" — Wis-A:on-san, — and some of the news- 
papers and his admirers imitated his example, so that* the 
Legislative Assembly thought it a matter of sufficient im- 
portance to pass a joint resolution, declaring that the or- 
thography should be that adopted in the organic act. 

No difference of opinion existed as to the proper orthogra- 
phy, but only as to the wisdom of passing any resolution on 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 471 

the subject. The final vote on the resokition in the House, 
where it originated, was IG to 0, and in the Council it was 

7 to G. 

The election of a Territorial printer was at this session 
provided for by law. He was to be elected by joint ballot 
of the two houses, his term of service to commence 
at the close of the session at which he was elected, and con- 
tinue one year and until his successor was elected. He was 
to give bond in the sum of three thousand dollars and take 
an oath faithfully to discharge his duties. He was to print 
the laws and journals and do all the incidental printing, 
and receive such compensation as should from time to time 
be established by law. 

Simeon Mills of Madison was the first Territorial printer 
elected under this law, having received 24: votes out of 38 
cast. John A. Brown received 13 and McCabe 1. 

The revision of the law regulating taverns and groceries 
attracted the attention of the Legislative Assembly at this 
session. 

It was provided by the Revised Statutes of 1839, that the 
county commissioners of the several counties might grant 
licenses to the keepers of inns and taverns, to sell strong 
and spirituous liquors and wines, and to determine the sum 
to be paid therefor, which should not be less than five 
dollars nor more than twenty-five, and that they might 
grant licenses to as many persons as they might think 
proper, to keep groceries for the sale of strong or spirituous 
liquors and wines, and that the sum to be paid for such 
grocery license should be one hundred dollars. 

The sum to be paid for a license to sell in any quantity 
not less than one quart, was to be not more than seventy- 
five dollars nor less than twenty dollars, in the discretion of 
the commissioners. 

Penalties were prescribed by the law for each violation of 
its provisions, but no specific mode for their enforcement 
was provided. 

The law passed at this session provided that these penal- 
ties might be prosecuted for and recovered in the name of 
the United States, and that it should be the duty of the 
board of supervisors of every town, and the board of com- 
missioners of every county, to prosecute for all violations of 
the law, and any person might do so. 



472 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

While the bill was pending in the House, an amendment 
was proposed, that any person might keep a house of enter- 
tainment without obtaining a license therefor, provided 
that no person should sell any spirituous liquors or other liq- 
uors prohibited by law, without obtaining a grocery license. 

This amendment was lost by a vote of 10 to 16, and in the 
Council a like amendment was defeated by a vote of 5 to 8. 
Another bill, giving to the legal voters of each municipality 
an option to restrain the granting of licenses therein, was 
reported by the judiciary committee in the House and was 
defeated by the close vote of 12 to 13, Mr, Thomas of Wal- 
worth not voting. 

An act passed in 1840, prescribing a penalty for the sale 
of intoxicating liquors to Indians, was amended so as to 
make the offense indictable, and punishable by fine and 
imprisonment. 

From a communication made by the Governor to the 
Council, in response to a resolution of that body, the same 
facts in relation to the amount of selected and unselected 
University lands were presented as were contained in the 
report at the previous session of the committee on Territo- 
rial affairs. 

An act was passed at this session which provided that 
John T. Haight of Jefferson county be appointed the agent 
of the Territory to select all the lands authorized to be set 
apart and reserved from sale by act of Congress, which had 
not been set apart and reserved from sale by the Secretary 
of the Treasury. 

County treasurers were required by special law to hold 
their offices at county seats. 

The clerk of the board of county commissioners or county 
supervisors was authorized, in case he had failed to adver- 
tise unredeemed lands as required by law, to again advertise 
them. 

He was also authorized to make deeds for lands sold for 
taxes and unredeemed, where the tax certificates had been 
lost, upon the certificate of the district judge that he was 
satisfied of such loss. 

Judges of probate were authorized by law to require from 
executors or administrators new or additional bonds. 
They were also authorized to grant letters of admin- 



TERRITOEY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 473 

istration upon the estates within the Territory of non-resi- 
dents. 

Commissioners were appointed to lay out Territorial roads: 

From Milwaukee to Fort Winnebago via county seat of 
Dodge county. 

From Milwaukee to Fox Lake, crossing Rock River near 
the outlet of the Winnebago Marsh (Horicon). 

From Spring street in Milwaukee to intersect the road 
leading from Milwaukee to Mukwanago. 

From Third street in Milwaukee until it intersects the 
United States road from Milwaukee to Green Bay south of 
Mad Creek. 

From Milwaukee to Fond du Lac, passing near the centre 
of Washington county. 

From Prairieville (Waukesha) to Fond du Lac. 

From Prairieville, via Menomonee Falls, to the county seat 
of Washington county. 

From Potters' Lake to the east line of Walworth county. 

From Waupun, via Ceresco, to the county seat of Portage 
county. 

From section thirty-five, town six, range seventeen east, 
in town of Ottawa to Prairieville. 

From Monroe to Janesville. 

From house of Jared S. Walsworth in Portage county 
to Grand Rapids. 

From section twenty-eight, town three, range nine east, to 
Janesville. 

From Exeter in Green county to Beloit. 

From section thirty-one, town one, range nine east, to 
Madison. 

From Watertown, by county seat of Dodge county, to Fond 
du Lac. 

From Sheboygan, via county seat of Dodge county, to 
Madison. 

From Madison, via Fountain Prairie, to Fox Lake. 

From Summit to Fond du Lac. 

From Fond du Lac, via Ceresco, to Fort Winnebago. 

From Washington harbor (Ozaukee) to Fond du Lac. 

From Columbus to Dekora. 

From Columbus, via Washara (Fox Lake), to Watertown. 

From Isaac Noyes, in Dodge county, to Seymour Wilcox's, 
in Fond du Lac. 



474 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

From Janesville, via Indianford and Catfish Mills, to 
Madison. 

From northeast corner of section 35, town 1, range 3 east, 
in Iowa county, via Spafford's branch, to Monroe. 

From Janesville, via Exeter, to Mineral Point. 

From the county seat of Washington county, to Hustis' 
Rapids. 

From Eagle, via Spring Lake, to Prairieville. 

From Watertown to Milwaukee; and 

From Watertown to Mineral Point. 

The compensation of road supervisors was fixed by law, 
and provision made for the application of delinquent road 
taxes to the repair of highways. 

The board of supervisors of Milwaukee county were 
specially authorized to levy and collect three thousand dol- 
lars, subject to the approval of the tax-payers at town meet- 
ing, to be expended in the construction of roads and bridges. 

The supervisors of Brown county were authorized to levy 
a tax not exceeding one per cent, annually, subject to a vote 
of the people of the county, for the purpose of constructing 
a McAdam, plank, or turnpike road from the foot of the 
Grand Kakalin to Winnebago Lake. 

The controversy which had existed for several years in 
Milwaukee, at one time threatening violence and bloodshed, 
appears to have found a quietus in the passage of a law at 
this session, which authorized the trustees of the east, the 
west, and the south wards, or of either of them, or the people 
who inhabit them — 

"To build, maintain, repair, rebuild and keep in operation at the expense of said wards, 
or either of them, bridges at the following places : From the foot of Cherry street to 
Water street, from the foot of Wisconsin street to Spring street, and from the foot of 
Water street to Walker's Point." 

Commissioners were appointed for carrying into effect an 
act of Congress of June, 1844, appropriating a section of 
land for the improvement of Grant River, in the town of 
Potosi. 

The commissioners were to cause the section (section 34, 
town 3, range 3 west) to be surveyed into lots, and to decide 
upon and award pre-emptions. The lots were to be appraised 
and sold. A receiver was appointed who was to receive all 
moneys paid for lots, and give certificates of such payments, 
which entitled the purchaser to receive from the Governor 
of the State a patent for the lot. 



TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 475 

The commissioners were to cause a survey and estimate 
to be made of the improvement provided for by the act of 
Congress, and report to the next Legislative Assembly. 

The moneys were to remain in the hands of the receiver, 
to be applied to the improvement in such manner as the 
Legislative Assembly should thereafter direct. 

A select committee of one from each election district was 
appointed to inquire into the expediency of erecting a peni- 
tentiary or Stale prison. They submitted a report setting 
forth the great necessity of such a penal institution, but not 
recommending any other measure looking to its attainment 
except a memorial to Congress soliciting an appropriation 
of a sufKcient sum to enable the Territory to erect a portion 
at least of a suitable building in which the criminals of the 
Territory may be confined and employed. The memorial 
was adopted, but no appropriation made by Congress fer the 
purpose. 

The Wisconsin River Navigation Company was incorpo- 
rated, with authority to erect a dam across the Wisconsin 
River below the Little Bull Falls, of such height as would 
raise the water on the falls as high as the surface of the 
water above them, with a slide for the passage of rafts, and 
to receive tolls for the passage of lumber, shingles and 
timber. 

John Hustis, his associates, successors and assigns, 
were authorized to build and maintain a dam across Rock 
River upon the east half of section 9, town 10, range IG 
east (Hustisford), in Dodge county. 

J. Cary Hall, his associates, successors and assigns, 
were authorized to build and maintain a dam on such part 
of the Menomonee River as was within the jurisdiction of 
the Territory, in section 1, town 32, range 22 east. 

Horace R. Jerome, his associates, successors and assigns, 
were authorized to build and maintain a dam on such part 
of the Menomonee River as was within the jurisdiction of 
the Territory, at a place called White's Rapids, on un sur- 
veyed land. 

Joachim Grenhagen, his associates, successors and as- 
signs, were authorized to erect and maintain a dam across 
the Milwaukee River, on sections 19 or 20, town 8, range 22 
east, in Milwaukee county, at what has since been called 
Good Hope. 



476 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Applications for divorce were made in tbe Council by 
Maria Woodford McElwain from her husband, and in the 
House by Uriel B. Smith, Seth H. Marquisse, and Matthias 
Chilton, from their wives respectively. 

The first passed both houses and became a law. The bill 
to divorce Uriel B. Smith from his wife passed the House 
by a vote of 14 to 10, and was rejected in the Council on its 
second reading by a vote of 7 to 4. 

In the cases of Seth H. Marquisse an d Matthias Chil- 
ton, the committee on the judiciary in the House made 
adverse reports, and no further action was had in relation 
to them. 

The name of Frances Adelle Crandall was changed to 
that of Frances Adelle Whiting by a special act, which 
declared that she should thereafter be knov/n and recog- 
nized as the adopted child of John Whiting, of Bloomfield, 
Walworth county, and as such be capable of inheriting and 
holding his property. 

Joel T. Landrum of Iowa county petitioned the Legisla- 
ture to pass an act changing the name of his natural son Jose- 
phus Matthews, an infant of about ten years, and to legiti- 
matize his said natural son so as to enable him to inherit the 
property of his father, which was done so far as an act of 
the Legislative Assembly could do it. 

A co-operative association was incorporated under the 
name of the "Wisconsin Phalanx," It was located in the* 
township of Ceresco, in Fond du Lac county, to which its 
business was restricted. Warren Chase, Lester Rounds 
and Uriel Farmin were authorized to receive subscriptions 
to stock. Afterwards the officers of the association were to 
be one president, one vice-president, secretary, treasurer 
and nine councillors. The act prescribed the duties of the 
officers and the manner in which the affairs of the corpora- 
tion should be conducted. 

The Janesville Academy was incorporated. 

Certain citizens of Milwaukee and their associates and such 
persons as thereafter might be associated with them were 
incorporated by the name of the "First Congregational 
Society in Milwaukee." The act of incorporation contained 
the unique provision that " nothing herein contained shall 
be so construed as to give to said society banking powers." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 477 

Besides the memorial to Congress, soliciting an appro- 
priation for a penitentiary, already mentioned, several 
others were adopted by the Legislative Assembly, 

One in relation to the lands granted by Congress to aid in 
the construction of the Milwaukee and Rock River canal, 
asking, among other things, that the proceeds of the sales 
of the lands might be donated to the Territory to be appro- 
priated to beneficial public uses, of which the payment of 
the debt incurred in completing the Capitol ; $50,000 for 
building a penitentiary, and $20,000 for a normal school, 
were suggested. 

One, asking for the passage of a bill which had passed the 
Senate at the previous session making an appropriation for 
the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. 

Two, asking for the establishment of mail routes from 
Racine, wa Beloit, to Galena, Ills., and from Milwaukee, via 
Whitewater and Fort Atkinson, to Madison. 

Three, asking appropriations for roads, from the Falls 
of St. Croix to LaTointe ; from Prairie du Chien to La'- 
Pointe, and from Fort Howard, Green Bay to Fort W^ilkins, 
Copper Harbor on Lake Superior. 

An itemized fee bill for services rendered by the clerk of 
the Supreme Court, and also by the Secretary of the Terri- 
tory, was at this session, for the first time, prescribed by 
law. 

An act was passed " for the protection of sheep " ; which 
provided that if any dog should be found killing, wounding 
or worrying any sheep, it should be lawful for any person 
forthwith to kill the dog. It also proliibited rc^ms from run- 
ning at large between the months of August and December, 
by imposing a penalty of five dollars on the owner. 

The appropriations made by the Legislative Assembly at 
this session for its incidental expenses, printing, postage, etc., 
exclusive of pay and mileage of membp j and pay of offi- 
cers was $G,G00.G0. 

After the passage of an act that the laws passed at that 
session should take effect on the first day of June, unless 
otherwise specially provided in the act itself, the Legisla- 
ture adjourned on the 24th of February sine die, after a 
session of fifty days. 



478 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

An act of Congress was passed in 1807, by which it was 
enacted that the several lead mines in the Indiana Terri- 
tory shall be reserved for the future disposal of the United 
States, and the President was authorized to lease any such 
lead mine for a term not exceeding five years. 

The lead mines of Wisconsin and Illinois were then in 
Indiana Territory. 

Pre-emption laws were passed in 1830, 1832, 1834, 1838 and 
1840. 

Another act was passed June 26, 1834, creating additional 
land districts in Illinois and Missouri and creating two land 
districts in Wisconsin (Green Bay and Mineral Point) which 
authorized the President to cause to be offered for sale all 
the lands lying in said districts 

" Eeserving only section sixteen, the tract reserved for the village of Galena, such other 
tracts as have been granted to individuals, and the State of Dlinois, and such reservations 
as the President shall deem necessary for military posts, any law of Congress heretofore 
existing to the contrai-y notwithstanding." 

It was claimed by the occupants of lands containing lead 
mines that they were entitled to pre-emptions under some 
of these pre-emption laws, and especially that such lands 
were subject to private entry under the act of June 20, 1834. 

This claim was not recognized by the General Land Of- 
fice nor by the local land offices. 

A case was finally decided during the December term, 
1 844, of the Supreme Court of the United States, of The 
United States vs. H. H. Gear, reported in 3d Howard's 
Reports, p. 120, in which the court decided that — 

"It was not intended to subject lead mine lands in the districts made by the act of June 
26, 1834, to sale as other public lands are sold, or to make them liable to preemption by 
settlers." 

In its reasoning the court say that the authority to sell 
these lands — 

"Can only mean all lands not prohibited from being sold, or which have been reserved 
from sale by force of law." * * # "a power to sell all lands given in a law subsequent 
to another law expressly reserving lead mine lauds from sale, cannot be said to be a power 
to sell the reserved lands when they are not named, or to repeal the reservation." 

This decision was by a divided court, Judges Story, 
McLean and McKinley dissenting, and a dissenting 
opinion prepared by Judge McLean was read, and con- 
curred in by Judges Story and McKinley. 

After this decision was promulgated, the superintendent 
of the lead mines at Galena, on the 2Gth May, 1845, issued a 
circular notice that — 



TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 479 

"In consequence of a recent decision, in which the rights of the United States to the 
lead mines have been clearly defined and established," — 

All persons mining or wishing to mine upon any lands to 
which a patent had not issued, were required to pay 
whatever rents may be due and take out a lease for mining, 
and that he had been instructed in case of necessity, to 
take legal measures to carry into effect the notice. 

Although this decision and the notice of the superintend- 
ent caused much uneasiness among the occupants of the 
lead mine lands, but few of them paid any rents ^r took 
any leases, as a very general feeling prevailed that an act 
of Congress would be passed by which titles to the lands 
could be obtained. Subsequent events showed that this 
feeling was well founded. 

The President of the United States in his message Decem- 
ber 1, 1845, said: 

" The present system of managing the mineral lands of the United States is believed to 
be radically defective. More than a million acres of the public land, supposed to contain 
s. lead and other minerals, have been reserved from sale and numerous leases upon theni 
have been granted to individuals upon a stipulated rent. The system of leases has proved 
to be not only unprofitable but unsatisfactory to the citizens who have gone upon the lands 
and must, if continued, lay the foundation of much future difficulty between the govern- 
ment and the lessees." 

" According to the official records, the amount of rent received by the government for 
the years 1841 '42, '43 and '44 was $6,344.74, while the expenses of the system during the 
same period, including salaries of superintendents, agents, clerks and incidental expenses 
were $26,111.11 — the income beingless than one fourth of the expense?. The sj"Slem has 
given rise to much litigation between the United States and individual citizens, producing 
irritation and excitement in the mineral region and involving the government in heavy 
•additional expenditures." ********* 

" I recommend the repeal of the present system and that these lands bo placed under 
the superintendence and management of the General Land Office as other public lands 
and brought into market and sold upon such terms as Congress in their wisdom may pre- 
scribe." 

On the loth of May, 1845, Hon. Henry Dodge was ap- 
pointed Governor of the Territory in place of Nathaniel P. 
Tallmadge removed, being thus restored to the place from 
which in 1841, he had been removed by President Tyler to 
give place to James D. Doty. 

On the Gth of May, Gov. Dodge returned from Washing- 
ton to his residence five miles from Mineral Point, where, 
after a few days he was waited upon by a committee ap- 
pointed at a large meeting of the citizens of Mineral Point 
without distinction of party, by whom he was tendered a 
public dinner. He accepted the invitation and at the time 



4.80 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



fixed for the ovation, the 5th of June, a large concourse as- 
sembled. The Governor was escorted from his residence to 
Mineral Point by the Mineral Point Dragoons, under com- 
mand of Capt. John F. O'Neill, where he was met by the 
citizens of the town and others, who formed in procession 
and marched to the Court House, where the Governor was 
welcomed on behalf of the people in an appropriate address 
to which he briefly responded. The procession again formed 
and marched to the Mansion House and partook of a dinner 
which mas followed with numerous toasts. The festivities 
of the day were followed by a ball at the Court House. 

During the month of May, George W. Jones was restored 
to the office of Surveyor General of Wisconsin and Iowa, 
from which he had been removed by President Tyler in 
1841. 

Soon after the 4th of March, John S. Rockwell was ap- 
pointed Marshal of the Territory in place of Charles M. 
Prevost whose commission had expired. 

Subsequently Wm. P. Lynde was appointed United States 
Attorney, in place of Thomas W. Sutherland removed. 

Paschall Bequette was appointed Receiver of Public 
Moneys at the Mineral Point Land Office. 

George H. Walker was appointed Register of the Land 
Office at Milwaukee in place of Paraclete Potter whose 
term of service had expired. 

The Democratic Territorial convention was held at Madi- 
son on the 25th of June, and resulted in the nomination of 
MoRG N L. Martin of Green Bay on the eighteenth ballot, 
as candidate for delegate. 

The following table exhibits the results of the several 
ballots : 



Candidates. 



Morgan L. Martin 

D. A. J. Upham 

Fkancis J. Dunn.. 
Moses M. Strong . 
Mason C. Darling 

Michael Frank 

Scattering 



1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


21 


23 


23 


21 


22 


24 


21 


23 


IE 


23 


23 


23 


16 


17 




5 


3 


31 


25 


24 


31 


28 


27 


24 


19 


22 


26 


24 


24 


21 


22 


23 


24 


26 


30 


21 


20 


20 


19 


19 


20 


15 


19 


20 


20 


22 


21 


19 


19 


19 


19 


2 


3 


8 


4 


5 


4 


5 


11 


3 


5 


5 


2 


1 


1 


1 








1 


5 


7 


2 


2 


1 


2 


7 


15 


2 





4 


12 


16 


27 


29 


26 




















1 


1 





2 


4 


1 


5 


1 


1 


1 


1 


2 


1 


1 





2 


3 


5 


2 


1 


1 


2 


2 


2 


1 












49 
20 


6 




TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1845. 481 

Mr. Martin bein^ at Madison was waited upon by a com- 
mittee who informed him of his nomination. He immedi- 
ately addressed a letter to the committee, in which, after 
expressing his acknowledgments for the honor conferred, he 
said : 

" Encouraged by the approbation heretofore expressed in my favor by my fellow-citi- 
zens during a long residence among them, I accept the nomination, and trust that the 
fondest expectations of ray friends will be realized in the coming contest." 

The Territorial Whig convention was first called to be 
held at Madison on the 9th day of July, and by order of the 
Territorial central committee the time was postponed to the 
24th of July, at which time the convention met and, with- 
out much controversy, nominated Hon. James Collins, of 
Iowa county, as the candidate of that party for delegate in 
Congress. 

Both candidates made a very thorough canvass of the 
Territory. 

Edward D. Holton, of Milwaukee, was also a candidate, 
having been nominated by the anti-slavery party, then 
designated as the " Liberty" party. 

The election was held on the fourth Monday (22d) of Sep- 
tember, and the result was: 

Whole number of votes cast was 13,393 

Of which Morgan L. Martin received 6,803 

James Collins 5,787 

Edward D . Holton 790 

Scattering 13 

Mr. Martin took his seat as delegate on the first Monday 
of December. 

Railroads were much talked of and anticipated as one of 
the developments of the near future, but as yet no work of 
construction had been commenced. The demands of the 
young community, however, for public means of inter-com- 
munication had not been overlooked. 

By the joint enterprise of Messrs. Feink, Walker & Co., of 
Chicago, L. P. Sanger of Galena, and Davis & Moore of 
Milw:.i.kee, a daily line of four-horse post coaches ran from 
Mil\v'aukee to Galena, through in three days. The line, 
which left Milwaukee on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fri- 
days, went via Troy, Janesville, Monroe, Wiota, Sliullsburg 
and White Oak Springs, lodging at Janesville and Shulls- 
burg. 

The line which left Milwaukee on Tuesdays, Thursdays 



482 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

and Saturdays, went via Prairieville, Whitewater, Fort 
Atkinson, Madison, Blue Mounds, Dodgeville, Mineral Point, 
Platteville and Hazel Green, lodging at Madison and Min- 
eral Point. 

Another line left AVhitewater tri-weekly, via ■ Milton, 
Janesville and Beloit for Kockford, where it connected with 
the Galena and Chicago daily line of stages. 

Another tri-weekly line ran from Milwaukee for New 
Berlin, Vernon, Mukwonago and Troy, returning every alter- 
nate day, forming a daily line between Milwaukee and 
Troy. 

Another tri-weekly line ran from Milwaukee via Oak 
Creek, Racine, and Southport to Chicago, returning alter- 
nate days. 

At Madison, connection was made with a stage line to 
Fort Winnebago, and at Platteville with another to Prairie 
du Chien. 

There were other less important lines in different parts of 
the Territory. 

On the 6th of April, Milwaukee was visited with the most 
disastrous conflagration which it had ever experienced. The 
fire broke out in a small wooden building opposite the Cot- 
tage Inn, and spread with frightful rapidity, burning down 
two entire squares before its progress was arrested. The 
Cottage Inn, and every other building between Michigan 
and Huron streets, except a barn and two or three small 
tenements, were destroyed by the fire. 

It was a serious calamity for Milwaukee in its infancy, 
and many of its citizens sustained very severe losses. Most 
of the buildings were of wood, and Milwaukee had reached 
that state of progress and prosperity that the demands of 
its business required the erection of more imposing and 
commodious structures. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 483 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1840. 

The last half of the tenth year of the tutelage which com- 
menced with the organization of the Territorial govern- 
ment in 183G, furnished unmistakable evidence that a 
decided majority of the hundred thousand or more of its 
inhabitants were now disposed to exchange their dependent 
relations to a distant paternal government, for the responsi- 
bilities and the anticipated advantages of an independent 
sovereignty as a State in the Union of States. 

The existence of this disposition had been officially dem- 
onstrated by a direct vote of the electors in April, and the 
"shadow of the coming event" was so distinctly discernible 
early in the year that a superficial observer could not fail 
to see it, so that the important preliminary laws were 
enacted both by Congress and the Territorial Legislature 
for the creation of a State government. 

The radical and important changes in the political con- 
dition of the inhabitants of Wisconsin, which were felt to 
be so certain to occur during the year 184G, gave to the an- 
ticipated events of the year a significant interest. 

At the first session of the Twenty-ninth Congress, which 
commenced in December, 1845, an act commonly called an 
"enabling act,"' was passed, which authorized the people 
of the Territory ~ ^ 

"To form a constitution and State government for the purpose of being admitted into the 
" Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatsoever, by the 
" name of the State of 'Wisconsin, with the following boundaries:" 

The entire boundaries are particularly described, and are 
the same as subsequently adopted in the constitution and 
as now exist. 

The unjust exercise of its power by the National Govern- 
ment, in violation of the rights guaranteed to the "Fifth 
State" by the ordinance of 1787, while Wisconsin had no 
voice with which to protest, seconded by the greed of 
Illinois for an unwarranted extension of her northern 
boundary, and her adverse occupancy for twenty-eight 



484 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

years of 7,500 square miles of our Territory, closed the door 
to all controversy over our southern boundary. 

The concession by Congress to Michigan of the Northern 
Peninsula, in consideration of the release by her to Ohio 
of the territory in dispute between those states, prevented 
any controversy in relation to our northeastern boundary. 

But upon the northwest, the territorial rights of the Fifth 
State under the Ordinance of 1787, as far as the Mississippi 
River to its head waters in Itasca Lake, were clear and un- 
disputed, and had been impaired by no previous action of 
Congress. To have extended its northwestern boundary to 
the extreme limit to which Wisconsin was entitled, would 
have given her all that part of Minnesota east of the Mis- 
sissippi, extending west to about the 05th degree of longi- 
tude, and intersecting the boundary line of the British 
possessions near where it leaves the Lake of the Woods in 
latitude forty-nine degrees. 

It was however the policy of Congress — at least of the 
non-slaveholding states, which were now in a majority — to 
provide for a "Sixth State" out of the old Northwest Terri- 
tory, supplemented by a small part of the '•' Louisiana Ter- 
ritory." 

To accomplish this object it was provided in the enabling 
act that the boundary after passing through Lake Superior 
to the mouth of the St. Louis River, should follow 

" Up the main channel of said river to the first rapids in the same above the Indian 
village, according to Nicolletfs map; thence due south to the main branch of the St. Croix 
River; thence down the main channel of said river to the Mississippi." 

The enabling act extended the laws of the United States 
over the State of Wisconsin, provided for a district court, a 
judge, marshal and attorney, and that the State should be 
entitled to two representatives in Congress. 

It submitted to the convention which should assemble for 
the purpose of forming a constitution the following propo- 
sitions, which if accepted by the convention and ratified by 
an article in the constitution, should be obligatory on the 
United States, viz.: 

First. That section sixteen in every township shoiild be granted to the State for the use 
of schools. 

Second. That the seventy -two sections set apart for a University by the act of June 12, 
1838, are granted to the State solely for the use and support of such University. 

Third. That ten sections be granted to the State for the purpose of completing the pub- 
lic buildings, or for the erection of others at the seat of government of the State. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 485 

Fourth. That all salt springs in the State not exceeding twelve, with sis sections of 
land adjoining or as contiguous as may be to each, be granted to the State. 

Fifth. That five per cent, of the net proceeds of sales of all public lauds lying within the 
State, shall be paid to the State for the purpose of making public roads and canals in the 

same. 

These five propositions were on the condition that tlie con- 
stitution or an irrevocable ordinance should provide that 
the State should never interfere with the primary disposal 
of the soil within the same by the United States, that no 
tax should be imposed on lands, the property of the United 
States, and that in no case should non-resident proprietors 
be taxed higher than residents. 

The parsimoniousness of Congress in the matter of appro- 
priations to promote the welfare and prosperity of the 
Territory was well calculated to increase the feeling in fa- 
vor of a change from a Territorial to a State government. 

A bill passed both houses of Congress making appropria- 
tion for the improvement of rivers and harbors, which in- 
cluded the more important harbors on Lake Michigan but 
the veto of President Polk prevented it from becoming a 
law. 

A bill was reported in the House appropriating $25,000 to 
aid in the construction of roads, but it did not become a law. 
It distributed the appropriations as follows: Milwaukee and 
Fond du Lac road 81,000; Milwaukee and Madison $4,000; 
Beloit to Winnebago $4,000; Racine and Madison $3,000; 
Green Bay and Fond du Lac $2,000; Green Bay and Chi- 
cago $4,000; Sheboygan and Fox River $2,000; and Platte- 
ville and Potosi $2,000. 

The Delegate in Congress was Hon. Morgan L. Martin, 
who resided at Green Bay, and had always as a member of 
the Territorial Legislature, and by his unofficial actions, 
manifested a deep interest in the improvement of the nav- 
igation of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. 

An act was passed at this session, the result, it was be- 
lieved, in a great measure of the active efforts of the Dele- 
gate, which granted to the State on its admission into the 
Union, for the purpose of improving the navigation of these 
rivers, and connecting them by a canal ; every alternate 
section of land, for three sections in width, on each side of 
the said Fox River and the lakes through which it passes, 
and of the canal. 

Complaints were made that this grant was obtained at 



486 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the cost of the neglect of other interests by the Delegate. 
But there is no evidence of any foundation for such com- 
plaints. 

The appropriation for salaries of United State oflScers of 
the Territory were the same as usual, but that for the Legis- 
lative expenses was only $13,700. 

An act was passed giving to the Surveyor-General of 
Wisconsin and Iowa the same annual salary as the other 
Surveyors-General, and the same amount for clerk hire as 
the Surveyor-General northwest of the Ohio. The effect of 
this was to increase the amount of salary and clerk hire 
from $3,100 to $8,300. 

The act for the relief of the Stockbridge tribe of Indians, 
approved March 3, 1843, was repealed, and the tribe or 
nation was restored to its ancient form of government. 
The repealing act provided for giving to such of the Indians 
as chose to become citizens, their proportion of the Indian 
land in severalty, and that the remainder of the land should 
be held in common by the remainder of the tribe. 

The only other act passed at this session of Congress 
especially affecting the interests of the people of the Terri- 
tory was one 

' ' To authorize the President to sell the reserved mineral lands in the States of Illinois 
and Arkansas and the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa supposed to contain lead ore." 

The fourth annual session of the fourth Legislative Assem- 
bly commenced at Madison on the 5tli day of January, 
1846. 

In the Council but one change from the previous year 
had occurred. Mr. Ray, of Milwaukee county, had re- 
signed, and Mr. Curtis Reed was elected in his place. 

In the House more than half the members had resigned 
and new ones elected to fill the vacancies. 

In Brown county Elisha Morrow succeeded Mr. Fowler. 

In the district composed of Rock and Walworth, all the 
members, being Messrs. Field, Mills, Thomas, and Moore 
resigned, and Messrs. Warner Earl, Gaylord Graves,. 
and Caleb Croswell, of Walworth county, and Mr. Ira 
Jones, of Rock county, took their places. 

In Racine county Messrs. McClellan and Northway 
gave place to Messrs. Andrew B. Jackson and Julius 
Wooster. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 



487 



In Milwaukee county Messrs. Brown, Ellis, Kilbourn, 
Shew, and Walker were succeeded by Messrs. Samuel H. 
Barstow, John Crawford, James Magone, Luther Parker 
and William H. Thomas. 

In Iowa county Messrs. Collins and Oliver had resigned 
and Messrs. H. M. Billings, and Charles Pole were their 
successors. 

In Grant county, in place of Mr. Hicks, Armstead C. 
Brown was the member. 

The Council w^as organized by the election of Nelson 
Dew^ey, President, Ben C. Eastman, Secretary, and Joseph 
Brisbois, Sergeant- at- Arms. Mr. Eastman resigned on the 
18th of January, and William R. Smith was elected his suc- 
cessor. 

In the House Mason C. Darling was elected Speaker, 
La'Fayette Kellogg, Chief Clerk, and David Bonham, Ser- 
geant-at-Arms. 

The following table exhibits the names, place of nativity, 
age, residence, and occupation of each of the members of 
the Legislative Assembly : 

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL. 



Names. 


Nativity. 


< 


Residence. 


Occupation. 


Charles M. Baker — 


N. York City . 


41 


Geneva, Walworth Co. 


L,avryer. 


John Catlin 


Vermont . ... 


41 


Madison, Dane Co 


Lawyer. 


Nelson Dewey 


Connecticut... 


32 


Lancaster, Grant Co 


La^TJ'er. 


Michael Frank 


New York 


.30 


Southport, Racine Co 


Printer. 


J. 11. Kimball 


Maine 


4.-) 


Prairie ville, Milwaukee Co.. 


Farmer. 


James Knekland 


New Y'ork . . . 


;>>! 


Milwaukee 


Merchant. 


WiRAM Knowlton 


New York — 


CO 


Prairie du Chien 


Lawyer. 


Curtis Reed 


Vermont 


:>,() 


Summit, Milwaukee Co 


Farmer. 


John H. Rountree — 


Kentucky 


40 


Platteville, Grant Co 


Merchant. 


Marshall M. Strong. 


Massachusetts 


3(> 


Racine, Racine Co 


Lawyer. 


Moses M. Strong 


Vermont 


3j 


Mineral Point, Iowa Co 


Lawyer. 


Edward V. Whiton. . . 


Ma.ssachusetts 


40 


Janesville, Rock Co 


Lawyer. 


Randall Wilcox 


Massachusetts 


51 


Depere, Brown Co 


Farmer. 









488 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



Names. 


Nativity. 


m 

< 


Residence. 


Occupation. 


Samdbl H. Barstow. . . 


Connecticut . . 


39 


Pewaukee, Milwaukee Co. . . 


Farmer. 


Henry M. Billings . . . 


New York 


39 


Centreville, Iowa Co 


Miner. 


Abraham Brawley. . . 


Pennsylvania. 


32 


Pinery, Portage Co 


Lumberman. 


Armstead C. Brown . . 


Missouri 


30 


Potosi, Grant Co 


Justice of Peace 


Thomas P. Burnett. . . 


Virginia 


45 


Grant Co 


Lawyer and far. 


JIaek R. Clapp 


Vermont 


42 


Aztalan, Jefferson Co 


Farmer. 


John Crawj-'oed 


Vermont 


53 


Wauwatosa, Milwaukee Co. 


Farmer. 


Caleb Croswei^ 


New York 


34 


Delavan, Walworth Co 


Printer. 


Thomas Cruson 


Kentucky — 


43 


Platte ville, Grant Co 


Farmer. 


Mason C. Darling 


Massachusetts 
Rhode Island. 


45 
36 


Fond du Lac 


Physician. 


William M. Dennis . . . 


WatertowH, Jefferson Co . . . 


Farmer. 


Warner Earl 


New York 


30 


Whitewater, Walworth Co. . 


Lawyer. 


James Fisher 


Pennsylvania 
New York.... 


30 


Prairie du Chien 


Carpenter. 


Gaylord Graves 


41 


East Troy, Walworth Co . ... 


Farmer. 


Robert C. Hoard... . 


Tennessee 


58 


Mineral Point, Iowa Co 


Miner. 


Andrew B. Jackson .. 


Connecticut . . 
Ohio 


31 
36 
37 


Bristol, Racine Co 


Farmer. 


Ira Jones 


Union, Rock Co 


Farmer. 


James Magone 


New York 


Milwaukee 


Shipwright. 


Benjamin H. Moores. 


New York 


52 


Hamburg, Washington Co. . 


Farmer. 


Elisha Morrow 


New Jersey... 


28 


Green Bay, Brown Co 


Lawyer. 


Luther Parker 


N. Hampshire 


45 


Muskego, Milwaukee Co 


Farmer. 


Noah Phelps 


New York 

Maryland 

Vermont 


37 
31 


Monroe, Green Co 


Farmer. 


Charles Pole 


Shullsbui-g, Iowa Co 

Burlington, Racine Co 


Miner. 


Orson Sheldon 


38 


Merchant. 


William H. Thomas . . 


New York ... 


24 


Lisbon, Milwaukee Co 


Farmer. 


Julius Wooster 


Connecticut . . 


32 


Caledonia, Racine Co. 


Farmer. 



The annual message of Governor Dodge was delivered 
by him in person to both houses assembled in the Represent- 
atives Hall on the second day of the session. 

The first and most important part of it, recommended the 
passage of a law submitting to the people, the question of 
the formation of a State government. 

A revision of the laws regulating common schools was 
recommended. 

The Territorial debt it was said should be paid as early as 
possible. 

Some steps, it was said, should be taken to raise funds for 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 489 

the erection of a penitentiary, and that it would be proper 
to memoriahze Congress, asking for an appropriation for 
that object. 

The message recommended memoriaHzing Congress on 
the subject of the sale of the lead mines and mineral lands. 

The importance of completing harbors at Milwaukee, 
Racine and Southport, and of constructing them at Sheboy- 
gan and Manitowoc, of the removal of the obstructions to 
the navigation of the Mississippi at the upper and lower 
rapids, of the improvement of the navigation of the Fox 
and Wisconsin Rivers, and of Rock River, as also the con- 
struction of a rail or macadamized road from Lake Michi- 
gan to the Mississippi, were each strongly set forth in the 
message, and the asking of appropriations by Congress 
recommended, accompanied, however, with the expression 
that it appeared to be the settled policy of the government 
to reduce the appropriations as low as possible, believing, as 
it would seem that the proper time had arrived, when Wis- 
consin should take the proper -steps for the formation of a 
State government. 

The subject of the militia and the public arms was re- 
ferred to. The Indians w^ere represented as peaceably dis- 
posed, except the Winnebagoes, of whose depredations 
complaint was made. 

So much of the Governor's message as related to State 
government, and all petitions, remonstrances and docu- 
ments relating to the subject, were referred to a joint select 
committee consisting of Messrs. Moses M. Strong, Frank, 
Morrow, Mooers, Sheldon, and Burnett. 

A very able report from the pen of Mr. Frank, in favor of 
the early formation of a State government was submitted 
by the committee, accompanied by a bill for that purpose. 

The report undertook to demonstrate that the change 
would result in pecuniary advantage. It stated that the 
average amount of appropriations made to the Territory for 
all purposes did not exceed about $38,000, while the interest 
upon the proceeds of 500,000 acres of land, which the State 
would receive on its admission into the Union at six per 
cent., and the five per cent, of the net proceeds of the sales 
of the public lands in the State, it was estimated would 
amount to about $55,000. 

Great importance was attributed by the report to the full 



490 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

control and disposal of our school lands, and the grant for a 
university, while it was assumed that the same liberality 
which had been extended to the other new States, would se- 
cure to us still further grants of land. 

The advantages of a political character were adverted to 
as being important, and were presented in a striking and 
forcible manner. 

The bill reported by the committee was amended in some 
of its details, and then passed the Council without a division. 

In the House some slight amendments were made, but the 
only proposition which elicited much discussion was an 
amendment offered by Mr. Pole to strike out that part of 
the bill which authorized the inhabitants who had only de- 
clared their intentions to become citizens of the United States 
to vote for delegates to the convention. Upon this amend- 
ment the vote was 7 to 18 — those who voted for it being 
Messrs. Brown, Burnett, Cruson, Hoard, Jones, Phelps, 
and Pole. 

An amendment was proposed to strike out the word 
" white " wherever it occurred in the bill, upon which the 
vote stood 10 to IG. Those voting in the affirmative were 
Messrs. Barstow, Brawley, Fisher, Graves, Jackson, 
Morrow, Parker, Sheldon, Wooster and Darling. 

The bill was then passed by a vote of 17 to 9. Those who 
voted in the negative were Messrs. Braw^ley, Brown, Bur- 
nett, Cruson, Fisher, Jones, Morrow, Pole and Darling. 

As soon as the bill was enrolled and presented to the Gov- 
ernor, it received his signature and became a law. 

Its principal features were that on the 1st Tuesday of 
April, 

" Every white male inhabitant above the age of of twenty-one years, who shall have re- 
sided in the Territofy for six months, next previous thereto, and who shall either be a 
citizen of the United States or shall have filed his declaration of mtention to become such 
according to the laws of the United States on the subject of naturalization ", 

should be authorized to vote for or against the formation of 
a State government. 

That the Governor should appoint some person in each 
county to take the census of the inhabitants on the first day 
of June. 

If a majority of all the votes were "for State govern- 
ment", the Governor was to make an apportionment among 
the several counties of delegates to form a State constitu- 
tion. The basis was one delegate for every 1,300 inhabi- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 49I 

tants, and an additional delegate for a fraction greater than 
a majority of said number, but there was to be one delegate 
to each organized county, and no two counties could be 
united in the same election district. The Governor was to 
make proclamation of the apportionment. 

The election was fixed for the first Monday of September, 
and the time of the annual election was changed from the 
fourth to the first Monday of September. 

The qualifications of voters for delegates were the same 
as those for voting on the preliminary question of the 
formation of a State government. 

The delegates were to meet at the Capitol on the first Mon- 
day of October, with full power and authority to form a 
republican constitution, which should be ratified by the 
people, in such manner and at such time as the convention 
should prescribe. 

It was provided by another act that the Governor should 
make a new apportionment of the Legislative Assembly 
among the several counties, based upon the census to be 
taken in June. 

Next to that of providing for the formation of a State Gov- 
ernment, no subject engaged the attention of the Legislature 
more than that of the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance 
Company. 

Incorporated for the ostensible purpose of conducting an 
insurance business, it was alleged that it had engaged in a 
general banking business, and thereby violated its charter. 

The act of incorporation contained this provision: 

" This corporation may likewise receive money on deposit, and loan the same on bot- 
tomry, respondentia, or other satisfactory security, at such rates of interest as may 
be done by Individuals by the laws of this Territory; may also make insurance upon life 
or lives and employ such capital as may belong or accrue to said company in the purchase 
of pviblic or other stock, or iii any other monied transactions or operat ions for the sole 
benefit of the said comjmny, and in general the said company may transact all business 
usually performed by insurance companies, provided nothing herein contained shall give 
the said company banking privileges.^'' 

The company issued what is called certificates of deposit 
in small sums — $1 , S2, and $5. They were in the similitude of 
bank notes and circulated as money, and to a large extent 
filled the channels of circulation. It claimed that these is- 
sues were authorized by its charter. 

No complaint was made that the company did not redeem 



493 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

in coin all its issues, or that it was not entirely responsible 
but it was claimed that the issue was an exercise of "bank- 
ing privileges," and a violation of its charter. 

There was a decided majority in each house in favor of 
taking some course to put a stop to these issues, and to the 
continued exercise of its corporate powers, and so great 
was the feeling of hostility to the corporation, that when a 
respectful communication from Alexander Mitchell, its 
secretary, was presented in the House, a motion to return it 
to him received 13 out of 26 votes, and on a motion to print 
it only five voted in the affirmati^'e. 

Three measures were introduced in the House with a view 
to deprive the company of its corporate powers. 

One was a bill for the unconditional repeal of its act of 
incorporation. 

Another, a joint resolution, instructing the Attorney Gen- 
eral to institute the necessary legal proceedings to procure 
a forfeiture of its franchise, and the other a memorial to 
Congress asking for the repeal and disapproval of the act 
of incorporation. 

The repealing act passed both houses and became a law. 
The vote in the House was 18 to 8, and in the Council 9 to 4. 

The passage of this law, however, had no practical effect 
in restraining the company from issuing certificates of de- 
posit as a circulating medium. 

The joint resolution failed of adoption in consequence of 
an irreconcilable disagreement between the two houses upon 
an amendment adopted by the Council. 

The memorial was ordered to a third reading in the House 
and then laid on the table and was never again taken up. 

A joint resolution was passed appointing a committee to 
examine the affairs of the Bank of Mineral Point. The 
bank had been practically defunct for more than four years 
and an examination could serve very little useful purpose, 
except to gratify curiosity. 

The report of the committee stated that the liabilities of 
the bank at the time of its failure consisted mainly of its 
circulating notes, which were supposed to have amounted 
to about $130,000. Of these $101,863 had been taken out of 
circulation, some having been received on debts due the 
bank and for property sold; some paid in St. Louis by at- 
tachment suits against the debtors of the bank and $9,131 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1S46. 493 

had been redeemed by the receivers; some at fifty cents on 
the dollar, some at twenty-five and some at ten, leaving- a 
balance of $34,137 in circulation, a portion of which was 
undoubtedly lost or destroyed. 

The nominal assets of the bank were $58,933. These con- 
sisted of notes, drafts, and bills of exchange, most of which 
were worthless, many of the debtors having been discharged 
under the bankrupt law; and of the amount, $33,491.54 was 
against Samuel B. Knapp, the defaulting and absconding 
cashier, and it did not appear probable that the amount 
which would be realized would pay more than ten per cent, 
of the liabilities. 

The report did not appear to require any legislation, and 
none was had. 

The subject of the indebtedness of the Territory, although 
not large, continued to occupy the attention of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. 

The aggregate amount of the assessments in the several 
counties, made in pursuance of the law of the last session, 
as returned to the auditor, was $9,324,405. 

A bill was reported in the Council by the committee on 
Territorial affairs to increase the revenue of the Territory 
by raising the rate of the Territorial tax from 1| mills to 
3 mills on the dollar of assessed valuation, which would have 
produced a revenue of about $28,000. The bill was ordered 
to a third reading in the Council, but afterward laid on the 
table and not again taken up. 

The amount of tax due to the Territory under the law 
passed in 1845, as reported by the Auditor, was $11,691.47, 
and the amount of tax unpaid prior to 1845 was $1,270.49. 

These sums were entirely inadequate to the payment of the 
debt, but it Avas impossible to determine the exact amount 
of the deficiency. 

The apijropriations by the Legislature in 1840, payable out 
of the Territorial Treasury, were $3,919.24, and was an addi- 
tion of that sum to the existing deficiency. 

A portion of the scrip which had been recei-'-ed into the 
Territorial Treasury was issued for legislative expenses, and 
provision was made for the payment of it by the United 
States, through the Secretary, who had been provided with 
funds for that purpose. 

The claim of Daniel Baxter was again presented and a 
favorable report made in the House, which adopted a reso- 



494 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

lution to pay him a certain sum of money in full payment. 
This resolution was defeated in the Council, where another 
resolution was passed, which was concurred in by the 
House and approved by the Governor, which authorized and 
directed the Territorial Treasurer to pay over to Mr. Bax- 
ter eight of the remaining Territorial bonds (of $100 each) 
issued for the completion of the Capitol, provided he would 
receive the same in full satisfaction and relinquishment of 
all his unsettled claims and demands. 

At an early day of the session, a joint resolution was in- 
troduced by Mr. Crawford, requiring the Superintendent 
of Territorial Property to discontinue all suits now pending 
in which the Territory is plaintiff. 

The resolution was referred to the committee on Territo- 
rial affairs, which reported that 

" Any action on the part of the Legislature, with a view to their discontinuance at this 
time, would be inexpedient and uncalled for. Nor with the knowledge which they have 
been able to possess themselves of, would they desire a public disclosure of aU the facts re- 
latmg to the same. They have therefore good and substantial reasons for recommending 
that no further action be had on this subject." 

Mr. Crawford made an earnest argument in support of 
his resolution, placing it chiefly on the ground of the great 
expense of prosecuting suits, especially for attorney's fees, 
and the worthlessness of any judgments that might be 
obtained. The resolution was then laid on the table by a 
vote of 18 to 7 — Mr. Burnett, who was attorney for the de- 
fendants not voting. Having been called up at a subsequent 
day, the House refused to adopt it without a division. 

These suits had been commenced and hitherto prosecuted 
under direction of the Superintendent of Public Property, as 
authorized by law. For that purpose he had employed 
attorneys other than the Attorney General. 

In an act passed at this session making an appropriation 
for professional services rendered and expenses incurred by 
one of these attorneys, a section was inserted that : 

" Hereafter there shall be no fees or compensation paid to any attorney except the 
Attorney- General, for any service to he performed in the management of any suit or suits 
in behalf of the Territory." 

The Superintendent of Territorial Property construed this 
section as placing tlie entire control and management of 
these suits in the Attorney General, and neither the Super- 
intendent nor the former attorneys had any further connec- 
tion with them. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846, 495 

In compliance with a resolution of the Council, the Attor- 
ney General reported that James T. Watson, then late 
of the city of New York, died seized of about two thousand 
four hundred acres of land in the county of Rock, about 
twelve miles west of Janesville. That he died leaving no rel- 
atives surviving him nearer than second cousins, and in the 
opinion of the Attorney General the lands had accrued to the 
Territory for want of heirs to inherit. 

It does not appear that anything further was done to give 
effect to the escheat, if the land had escheated. 

At this session of the Legislative Assembly, the county of 
Waukesha was formed out of Milwaukee county. La Fay- 
ette out of Iowa and Columbia out of Portage. The act 
creating Waukesha county was to be effective if approved 
by a majority of the voters of the proposed new county 
west of range 21, excluding those of the remaining part of 
Milwaukee including the city. The requisite majority of 
votes was cast and Waukesha county was organized. 

The creation of the new county of La Fayette was sub- 
mitted to a vote of all the voters of the whole of Iowa 
county. The result was 1,115 for division, and 882 against it. 

The creation of Columbia county was unconditional and 
dependent upon no vote whatever. 

The inhabitants of Watertown, which is partly in Jeffer- 
son and partly in Dodge counties, and other inhabitants of 
that vicinity had long desired a new county from parts of 
each. For the purpose of ascertaining the wishes of the 
peoi)le of these counties, a proposition was submitted to 
them to be voted on, that a new county be established to be 
composed of towns and 10 of ranges 13, 14, 15, IG and 17 in 
Dodge county, and town 8 of ranges 13, 14, 15 and IG in Jef- 
ferson county. The result was to be certified to the Secre- 
tary of the Territory and laid before the Legislature. 

The vote was adverse to the proposition. 

The form of county government was changed in the 
counties of Dodge, Dane and Washington, and the act of 
1841 to provide for "township" government, was declared to 
be in force in those counties. 

In the county of Dodge the following towns were created 
and their boundaries prescribed, viz.: Portland, Emmett, 
Lebanon, Ashippun, Elba, Calamus, Lowell, Clyinan, Hus- 



49G HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

tisford, Rubicon, Beaver Dam, Fairfield, Hubbard, Burnett, 
Williamstown, Le'Roy, Chester, Trenton and Fox Lake. 

The following in the county of Dane, viz.: Rutland, Rome, 
Albion, Dunkirk, Sun Prairie, and all the remaining town- 
ships in the county constituted the town of Madison. 

In the county of Washington, the following, viz.: Erin, 
Richfield, Germantown, Mequon, Wright, Polk, Jackson, 
Grafton, Addison, West Bend and Port Washington. 

The county of Sheboygan was organized for judicial pur- 
poses. 

An act was passed providing for a change of the location 
of the county seat of Sauk county by a popular vote. 

The boundary line between the counties of Crawford and 
Chippewa was established. 

The county seat of St. Croix county was established at 
Stillwater. 

The following new towns were organized in other coun- 
ties : 

In Jefferson county Aztalan, Ixonia, Sullivan, Concord, 
Tunbridge, Palmyra, Bark River and Farmington. 

In Rock county. Magnolia and Oak. 

In Walworth county. Elk Horn, Sugar Creek, Turtle, Brad- 
ford, Spring Valley and Newark. 

In Racine county, Blackhawk, Yorkville and Raymond. 

In Fond du Lac county, Rosendale, Lime, Metomen and 
Byron. 

The town of Stillwater and the town of Saint Paul — now 
in Minnesota — were declared to be election precincts at 
either of which the electors of St. Croix county might vote, 
and have xhAr votes returned to and canvassed by the offi- 
cers of Crawford county. 

Milwaukee was first incorporated as a city at this session 
of the Legislature. The territory embraced in the city 
limits was the south half of town seven, of range twenty- 
two, except the northwest quarter of section twenty and the 
north half of section nineteen. 

The city was divided into five wards, and the elective 
officers were a mayor for the city, three aldermen, one jus- 
tice of the peace and one constable in each ward. 

Solomon Juneau was elected the first mayor. 

The villages of Madison, Prairieville, Sheboygan and 
Potosi were incorporated b)'- special acts, and an act of the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 497 

previous year vacating? an alley in the village of Southport 
was repealed. 

The Governor submitted the report of John T. Haight, 
who had been appointed an agent on the part of the Terri- 
tory to select the unlocated lands granted by Congress for a 
university. 

It appearing from the report that the granted lands had 
not all been yet selected, another act was passed by which 
Nathaniel F. Hyer was authorized to select all the lands 
authorized, which had not been set apart and reserved 
from sale by the Secretary of the Treasury for the purposes 
of a university by virtue of the act of Congress of June 12, 
1838. 

Beloit College was incorporated by a special act of incor- 
poration. It was required to be located in the township of 
Beloit, Rock county, and to — 

"Be erected on a plan sufflciently extensive to afford instruction in the liberal arts and 
sciences." 

The first corporators were Reverends A. Kent, D. Clary, 
S. Peet, F. Bascum, C. Waterbury, J. D. Stevens, A. L. 
Chapin and R. M. Pearson, and Messrs. G. W. Hickox, 
A. Raymond, C. M. Goodsell, E. W. Potter, L. G. Fisher, 
W. Talcott, Charles S. Hempstead and Samuel Hinman. 

The name of Prairieville Academy was changed to Carroll 
College, and the trustees incorporated as a collegiate insti- 
tution. 

The "Madison Academy" was authorized to receive from 
the county commissioners of Dane county the sura of $2,216, 
which was a special fund appropriated to the county for the 
purpose of building an academy at Madison. 

During the session of the Legislature an educational 
convention assembled at Madison, which appointed a com- 
mittee to prepare and submit some plan for the advance- 
ment of common school education in Wisconsin. 

The committee, which consisted of Mortimer M. Jack- 
son, Lewis H. Loss, Levi Hubbell, M. Frank, Caleb Cros- 
well, C. M. Baker and H. M. Billings, prepared a report, 
which was submitted to the Legislature and which recom- 
mended the appointment of an agent — 

' 'To visit the different school districts, ascertain the condition of common schools, col- 
lect statistics with regard to the subject of education, and organize educational associa- 
33 



498 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

tions in the several counties and teachers' associations, and report to the Legislative 
Assembly, with his own suggestions and recommendations." 

The committee on schools, in the Assembly, to which the 
subject had been referred, reported upon it favorably, to- 
gether with a bill to provide for the appointment of a super- 
intendent of common schools. The bill passed the Assembly 
without a division, but was defeated in the Council, only 
three votes — Messrs. Baker, Frank, and Moses M, Strong — 
being in favor of it. 

Special provision was made by law for the appointment 
of a board of school commissioners for the city of Milwau- 
kee. 

School District No. 1, in the town of Fond du Lac, was 
•created a corporation by the name of the ''Trustees of the 
Franklin School." The election of a board of trustees, and 
the power to levy taxes, were specially provided for. 

Owing to the inadequacy of the general laws, special acts 
were passed authorizing the levying of taxes, generally for 
the erection of school-houses, in School Districts Nos. 3, 4, 
and 10, in Dane county; in JSTos. 3 and 7, in the town of 
" Snake Hollow," and No. 1 in the town of Wisconsin, and 
No. 1 in the town of Platteville, all in Grant county; No. 5 in 
the town of Elk Horn, Walworth county; No. 1 in the town 
of Rochester, Racine county, and District No. 1 in Sheboy- 
gan county. 

Courts were now held in the counties of Dane, Sauk, Jef- 
ferson, Green, Rock, Walworth, and Portage, in the Second 
Judicial District, and an act was passed re-arranging the 
times of the sessions, which were semi-annual in all the 
counties except Portage, where only an annual term was 
held, on the second Monday in September. 

Some important provisions were also enacted in relation 
to the practice and proceedings in the Circuit and Supreme 
courts, especially in relation to writs of mandamus and quo 
warranto. 

An act was also passed to provide for the more convenient 
contesting of the election of county and other offices before 
the' district courts. 

The time had not yet come for beginning the work of con- 
structing a railroad across the Territory from Lake Michi- 
gan to the Mississippi River, but the subject had for two or 
three years occupied the thoughts of the more sanguine and 
far-seeing. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 499 

At this session numerous petitions were presented from 
almost every section of the Territory asking for charters 
between each of the most important lake ports and some 
point on the Mississippi River. 

Man}^ members appeared to entertain the idea that the 
granting of a charter for a railroad upon any particular 
route would injure the prospects of the construction of one 
upon any other route. Some were opposed to granting any 
charters, and others were in favor of granting charters for 
any and all roads that were asked for in good faith, with 
an honest intention of making a serious effort to construct 
the work. 

The feeling in the Council was much more liberal than in 
the House, and after much debate and delay, the Council 
finally passed four charters : 

One from Milwaukee, via Janesville, to Potosi. 

One from Milwaukee, via Madison, to Potosi. 

One from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, leaving 
the termini to be defined by the company, and 

One from Shebyogan, via Fond du Lac , to Fort Winne- 
bago. 

None of these were passed until the last day but one of 
the session, and owing to the shortness of the time, no action 
was taken upon them in the House, and if there had been, 
they would probably have been defeated. 

A correspondent of the Galena Gazette, writing from 
Madison, and who probably gave expression to the opinions 
of many at that time, said : 

" The only points on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River to be connected by a rail- 
road for the next fifty years are Chicago and Galena." 

Plank roads were then regarded as more practicable and 
better adapted to the Avants of the community, in reaching 
a market for their agricultural products, of which at that 
time wheat was the principal. 

A charter was passed incorporating a company with 
authority to construct a road 

" Of timber or plank, so that the same form a hard, smooth and even surface " from the 
place " where the north Bla-lison Territorial road now crosses the range line, dividing 
range 19 and 20 ", to " within one mile of the Milwaukee River, in right direction to the 
west ward of Milwaukee village." 

The company was also authorized to extend the road from 
such range line to the village of Watertown. 
The company was organized, the capital subscribed and 



500 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

paid by citizens of Milwaukee, the road built from Milwau- 
kee to Watertown, and was not only of great advantage to 
the people of the whole Territory, but a remunerative invest- 
ment for a time to the stockholders. 

Another improvement of a somewhat like character, but 
to be constructed in a very different manner, was "a 
McAdam, plank, rail or turnpike road from the foot of 
Grand Kakalin to Winnebago Lake " — for the purpose of 
constructing which, the county authorities of the counties 
of Calumet, Fond du Lac, "Winnebago and Marquette, were 
authorized by a special act to levy a tax not exceeding one 
per cent, per annum. The levying of the tax was contin- 
gent upon a vote in its favor by the legal voters of the 
several counties, and but little public benefit resulted from 
the enactment. 

The growth of the Territory was by successive, if not 
rapid steps of progress. None of these steps were of more 
importance than the locating of Territorial roads which 
were annually authorized by the Legislative Assembly and 
it is the province of history to re-present these numerous 
steps, although they may not possess for the present gener- 
ation the interest which inspired them. 

Territorial roads were authorized by special laws : 

From Prairie ville, via Delafield and Summit, to the point 
where the United States road from Milwaukee to Madison 
crosses Battle Creek, in Jefferson county. 

From Waupun to Winnebago Rapids in Winnebago 
county. 

From Delafield to Hustis' Rapids. 

From Milwaukee to Fond du Lac. 

From Whitewater, via Indian Ford on Rock River and 
Cook's mills on section six, town four, range eleven east, and 
thence to the Territorial road from Milwaukee to Mineral 
Point, at or near the Peckatonica. 

From the range line between ranges ten and eleven, 
corner of section eighteen and nineteen, to the house of 
John Cook in town of Janesville. 

From Jefferson, via Dunkirk and Cooks' Mills, to Camp- 
bell's bridge on Sugar River. 

From a point on the United States road from Washington 
harbor to Dekora, in a northwesterly direction, via AVcst 
Bend, to again intersect said United States road. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 501 

From Duck Creek Settlement, in Brown county, to the 
outlet of Winnebago Lake. 

From Beloit to White Oak Springs. 

From the Combe Settlement in Richland county to the 
Kickapoo copper mines. 

From Jefferson to Madison. 

From Watertown, via Hustis' Rapids, to Fond du Lac. 

From Burlington to Janesville. 

From Decora to Beaver Dam. 

From section thirteen, town nine, range twelve east, to 
Lake Puckawa. 

From the forks of the Madison and military road in Dane 
county to Wingville in Grant county. 

From Hustis' Ford, via May and Foster's Mills, to Fond 
du Lac. 

From Milwaukee, via Hustis' Ford, to the Fox Lake and 
Watertown road, at or near Major Pratt's. 

From Columbus to Green Lake. 

From Sheboygan, via Hustis' Ford, to Madison. 

From Calumet to the Sheboygan and Fond du Lac road. 

From Fort Winnebago, on the south side of Swan Lake, 
to the old road between Fort Winnebago and Madison. 

From East Troy to Elk Horn. 

From Columbus to Waterloo, 

From Elkhorn, via Palmyra, to Hustis' Ford. 

From Milwaukee to Fort Atkinson. 

From Exeter, via Badger Mills, to Fort Winnebago. 

From Madison to the State line between Sugar River and 
Pearce's Creek. 

From Beloit to Madison. 

From Green Bay, due west, to the Wisconsin River. 

From Manitowoc, westward, to intersect the United 
States road from Green Bay to Fond du Lac. 

From Sinipeo, in Grant county, to Oak Creek pier in Mil- 
waukee county. 

From Waterloo to Beaver Dam. 

From Hustis' Ford to Piperville. 

From Rising's Rapids, Dodge count}^ to Fort Winnebago. 

From Waupun to Fort Winnebago. 

From Watertown to Madison. 

From Watertown, via West Bend, to Sheboygan. 

From Watertown to Lowell. 

From Burlington to Delavan. 



502 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Special provision was made by law for the rebuilding and 
maintaining, by the town of Milwaukee and the several 
wards in the city of Milwaukee, of three bridges across the 
Milwaukee River, from the foot of Water street in the Third 
ward, to the foot of Ferry street in the Fifth ward; from 
Wisconsin street to Spring street, and from Water street in 
the First ward to Cherry street. 

Jemison Hamilton was granted the privilege by special 
act, of erecting a toll bridge across the Peckatonica River 
at or near his house "in the town of New Bedford." This 
point is now in the heart of the city of Darlington, La'Fay- 
ette county. 

The commissioners appointed at the preceding session of 
the Legislative Assembly, for carrying into effect an act of 
Congress of June, 1844, appropriating a section of land for 
the improvement of Grant River in the town of Potosi, sub- 
mitted their report together with the report of the receiver, 
from which it appeared that they had caused the section 
(section 34, town 3, range 3 west) to be surveyed in town or 
village lots and "out lots." That they had examined and 
determined all claims to pre-emption rights presented, the 
valuation of which had been assessed by persons appointed 
by the Surveyor General, and that they had in pursuance of 
the act of the last session, sold all of the lots in said section 
of land. That the aggregate amount of all the sales was 
the sum of $4,130.64. That the expenditures under the said 
act of the Legislative Assembly were $1,405.21, leaving a 
balance in the hands of the receiver of $2,725.43. 

The commissioners also submitted a report of Capt. 
Joshua Barney, U. S. civil engineer, superintending the im- 
provement of the Dubuque harbor, who after making an 
examination and estimates of several different plans of im- 
proving the harbor of Potosi, recommended a direct cut 
from the Mississippi River to Grant River slough, the cost of 
which he estimated at $20,041.45. 

The reports of the commissioners, receiver and engineer 
were referred to a committee of the House, of which Hon. 
Thomas P. Burnett was chairman which reported that: 

" Although the cost of the proposed canal greatly exceeds the fund now available for 
its construction, and may seem a large sum to apply to such a work, yet the committee 
are of the opinion that the importance of the improvement to the western part of the Ter- 
ritory, is of such magnitude that the work ought to be undertaken and a commencement 
made with the funds now applicable to that purpose. This sum will be very nearly or 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 503 

quite sufficient, according to the estimate that has been made, to pay for the clearing and 
grubbing of the ground and making the first course of excavation. This much of the work 
can be completed during the present year, and it may reasonably be expected that Con- 
gress will appropriate a sufficient sum to finish the improvement after it shall have been 
commenced." 

The Legislative Assembly adopted the views of the com- 
mittee, and passed an act appointing James F. Chapman a 
commissioner to expend the fund in the hands of the re- 
ceiver, upon the plan recommended by Capt. Barney. The 
money was faithfully expended, but the canal was not com- 
pleted. 

A memorial to congress was adopted asking for an addi- 
tional appropriation of $17,310.03, but no appropriation was 
obtained. 

At the same session the exclusive right and privilege, for 
ten years, of keeping a ferry across the Grant and Missis- 
sippi Rivers, at the place of this improvement, was granted 
to James F. Chapman, his heirs and assigns. 

The construction of a dam across, the Milwaukee River, 
in the town of Saukville, nearly west of Ozaukee, was 
authorized by special act. 

Abraham Bravtley was authorized to build and main- 
tain a dam and boom on the Wisconsin River between sec- 
tions 31 and 33, town 34, range 8 east. 

A boom was erected, which afterward became the prop- 
erty of the Stevens Point Boom Company, and is a valu- 
able adjunct to the lumbering interests at and near the City 
of Stevens Point. 

The " Rochester Cemetery Company," at Rochester, Ra- 
cine county, was incorporated, with power to hold real and 
personal estate. 

A general law was enacted, authorizing religious socie- 
ties, by application to, and decree of, the District Court, to 
sell or mortgage their houses of worshiper other real estate. 
Also of their own volition to sell or lease seats and pews in 
their respective houses of worship. 

An act was passed to incorporate the — 

" CarroUton Manufacturing Company, of Ormsbeeville, Wisconsin,''' with " power to 
manufacture cotton and woolen godds, iron and wooden wares, and merchandise, construct 
dams, canals, or waterwaj-s and reservoirs, fiumes and races." 

The business to be confined to section 38, town lo, range 
23, in the county of Sheboygan, which was on the Sheboy- 



504 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

gan River, about midway between its mouth and Sheboygan 
Falls. 

Petitions were presented in the House of Representatives 
complaining that the act requiring ministers of the gospel 
to file a copy of their credentials with the clerk of the Dis- 
trict Court, and have the same recorded, before they should 
be authorized to solemnize marriages, was burdensome and 
expensive. The petitions were referred to the judiciary 
committee, which, by Mr. Burnett, the chairman, submit- 
ted a report, setting forth the importance that the records of 
the county should always show the authority of oflScers to 
perform the civil rite of matrimony, and concluding 

*' That the inconvenience and expense complained of are not so great as to be a griev- 
ance, and that -whatever it may be, it is not expedient to grant the rehef prayed for, by 
altering the law as it now exists." 

The causes for which divorces might be granted were 
increased by adding to the number the sentence to a State's 
prison or penitentiary for a term of two years or more. 

Five special applications for divorce were presented, two 
in the Council and three in the House, upon all of which 
adverse reports were made by committees, except that of 
John J. Driggs. In the latter case a bill was passed divorc- 
ing him from his wife, the vote in the House being 19 to 5, 
and in the Council 7 to 6. None of the others were brought 
to a vote. 

The name of Adelbut H. Bishop, was by special law 
changed to Adelbut H. Hubbard. 

The subject of the sale of intoxicating liquors and the 
granting of license therefor, was one which, at this time, 
excited the popular mind to a very great degree, and the 
feeling of the people was reflected by numerous petitions 
to the Legislative Assembly. 

The prevalent idea of those who sought reform through 
legislative action was the repeal of all laws authorizing 
license, while many were in favor of total prohibition. 

A bill was introduced, which provided for a novel kind of 
local option. 

It provided that the legal voters of each town should vote 
for "license" or "no license." If a majority voted for 
" license ", then the sale of liquors was to be unrestrained and 
unlicensed. If a majority voted " no license ", then the sale 
was to be totally prohibited, and of course unlicensed. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 505 

It was urged in support of the bill that it took away one of 
the arguments of the rumseller, that he was engaged in busi- 
ness recognized by the law as lawful. 

When the bill came up for consideration in the Council 
it was moved to strike out all after the enacting clause, 
and substitute for it that — 

"Hereafter no license shall be granted for the sale of intoxicating hquors; any law of 
this Territory conflicting with tlie provisions of this section is hei-eby repealed." 

This substitute was adopted by a vote of 7 to G, and the 
bill so amended was refused a third reading by a vote of 1 
to 12. 

A bill upon the subject was reported in the House differ- 
ing from the Council bill, in that it did not provide for 
local option. The House was nearly evenly divided upon all 
questions which arose upon it. 

The first was to strike out all after the enacting clause. 
This prevailed by a vote of 14 to 11. 

An amendment was then offered — 

"That no consideration or sum of money shall be hereafter demanded or received for 
any tavern or grocery license to be granted within this Territory." 

This was adopted by a vote of 14 to 12, and by a like vote 
the bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time. 

On the next day, when tlie question was put on the pas- 
sage of the bill, Mr. Speaker, who had voted for its third 
reading, changed his vote, and the bill was defeated by a tie 
vote, the vote being 13 to 13. 

A very elaborate report was submitted by the Adjutant 
General, which contained a very complete histcry of the 
progress of the militia organization during the existence of 
the Territory — nearly ten years — and concluded with a 
deprecation of the policy which had substituted enrollment 
for mustering and training. But no change in the policy 
was adopted. 

The occupation by the military forces of the United States 
of the territory upon the left bank of the Rio G rande, which 
by the annexation of Texas had recently been brought 
under the protection of the flag of the United States, re- 
sulted in a hostile collision between armed troops of Mexico 
and the United States, which culminated in the declara- 
tion by Congress of the existence of a war between the two 
nations and the providing of men and means for its prose- 
cution. 



506 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A call was made for fifty thousand volunteers to take the 
field, which were apportioned among the several states, but 
the Territory of Wisconsin was not called upon for any or- 
ganized force, except for the enrollment of one regiment as 
a contingent force, and the opportunity was not presented 
to its patriotic citizens to take an active part in the war, ex- 
cept as they volunteered to form part of the regiments of 
other states, which many of them did. One company was 
organized near the Illinois State line, of which Jajies Col- 
lins was the Captain, and joined an Illinois regiment of 
which Capt. Collins became the Colonel and Amasa Cobr 
his Adjutant. 

On the last day of the session of the Legislature, the Gov- 
ernor sent to the House of- Representatives the proceedings 
of a meeting of tlie citizens of Muscoda, representing that 
an armed collision had occurred between a band of the Win- 
nebago Indians and the citizens of that locality, which re- 
sulted in a fatal conflict, in which four of the Indians were 
severely, if not not mortally wounded, and that more serious 
consequences were expected to ensue. 

It was further stated that the citizens had organized into 
a military company, had elected their officers, and were de- 
termined not to rest until they had killed or driven to their 
own ground, west of the Mississippi, every Indian on the 
Wisconsin. 

The Governor recommended the adoption of a memorial 
to the Secretary Of War asking that a corps of the United 
States dragoons be ordered to this Territory for the protec- 
tion of our frontier settlements. 

Resolutions to that eff'ect were immediately adopted by 
the House, under a suspension of all rules, and sent to the 
Council where they were amended by the addition of au- 
thority to the Governor to raise a battalion of mounted vol- 
unteer riflemen for the protection of the frontier from the 
depredations of the Winnebago Indians. 

There were no more hostile collisions between the Indians, 
and the inhabitants. 

On the 24th of February, John Catlin was appointed 
Secretary of the Territory in place of Geo. R. C. Floyd, re- 
moved. 

During the session of the Legislative Assembly, numerous 
nominations to office were made by the Governor, every on^ 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 507 

of which was confirmed by the Council, and with only one 
exception, without a division. 

On the 20th of January, both houses met in joint con- 
vention, when Simeon Mills was elected Territorial printer 
and Joseph Gillett Knapp was elected Superintendent of 
Public Property. 

Memorials to Congress were adopted on various subjects: 

The reserved mineral lands; 

A road from Prairie du Chien to La'Pointe; 

For a collection district west of Lake Michigan and a port 
of entry at Milwaukee; 

For the improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers; 

Relative to the "canal land," and to reduce the price of 
the even sections; 

For an appropriation for the Potosi harbor; 

For the appropriation of Fort Howard for educational 
purposes; 

For numerous mail routes; and 

For an appropriation for a penitentiary. 

A very important joint resolution was adopted by the 
Legislative Assembly, wdiich provided that the receiver of 
the canal land should pay over to the Treasurer of the 
Territory all moneys which might arise from any sale of 
the canal lands — less the expenses of the sale — and 
that it might be used for the same puposes as any other 
money in the treasury, and that so much of it as might be 
necessary be appropriated to the payment of the expenses 
of holding the convention to form a constitution for the 
State of Wisconsin. 

With whatever justice this appropriation of a trust fund 
for objects entirely foreign to the trust may be criticised, it 
certainly provided means for paying the expenses of the 
convention to form a constitution, for which there did not 
appear to be any other available resource. 

A gloom was cast over the closing days of this session, by 
the awful news that the dwelling house of one of the mem- 
bers — Marshall M. Strong, of Racine — had been con- 
sumed by fire, and that his wife and his two only children 
had perished in the flames. 

Upon the receipt of this heart-rending news on the 2Sth 
of January, both houses immediately adjourned, filled with 



508 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the profoundest grief for the sad calamity which had be- 
fallen their associate. 

Both houses adjourned on the 3d of February, after a ses- 
sion of only thirty days, which terminated the last session 
of the fourth Legislative Assembly. 

With the close of this political year, the terms of the mem- 
bers of both houses closed also — the members of the Council 
who had been elected for four years, and of the House for two. 

In the early part of this year (January) Mr. Floyd was 
removed from the office of Superintendent of Lead Mines, 
and James Mitchell, of Galena, was appointed in his place, 
but he held the office only about a year before his occupa- 
tion was gone. 

In November a proclamation was issued by the President 
for the sale, in pursuance of a law passed at the previous 
session, of all the lands reserved on account of having been 
supposed to contain lead mines. The sale was to be at Min- 
eral Point May 24, 1847. 

This proclamation, indeed the passage of the law by which 
it was authorized, made the duties of the Superintendent of 
the Lead Mines merely nominal. 

Notwithstanding these reservations, the official returns 
showed that the land sales for the previous years were quite 
large. 

In 18 14 the numbtT of acres sold was 27,347.35 Amount of sales $34,334 19 

In 1845 the number of acres sold was 44,437.05 Amount of sales 55,547 06 



In both years the number of acres sold 

was 71,785.00 Amount of sales $89,781 25 

At different times during the ten years of Territorial gov- 
ernment attempts had been made to organize parties with 
reference to national politics. Although these attempts had 
met with a large measure of success, the political divisions 
were not as perfect in local elections, with reference to na- 
tional issues, as in the States. Still, those attached to the 
Democratic party constituted a very decided and acknowl- 
edged majority. 

For some years previous to 1846, the ''Argus" had been the 
only Democratic paper at Madison. It was owned and man- 
aged by two or three gentlemen, of whom Simeon Mills 
was one. Mr. Mills was not a practical printer, although 
an excellent business man, and had been elected Territorial 
Printer, supposed to be a lucrative office. 

Mr. Beriah Brown was a professional printer, an accom- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 509 

plished writer, a popular editor, and had many devoted 
friends. He had been elected to a responsible county office 
in Iowa county, and had been led by his party zeal to aid 
largely in establishing a Democratic paper at Mineral Point, 
which proved unfortunate, and cost him, as he said, " one 
half of all he received from the county of Iowa for official 
services." 

Mr. Brown determined to establish a Democratic paper at 
Madison, which he did, called the " Madison Democrat," the 
first number being issued on the 10th of January, 1846. 

This movement was hailed with satisfaction by many 
who had become dissatisfied with the managers and man- 
agement of the " Argus,'' and was regarded with feelings of 
regret by a large number of loyal and conservative Demo- 
crats, who were apprehensive that it w^ould have the effect 
of splitting into fragments the Democratic party of the em- 
bryo State. 

Several motives for this movement were assigned by Mr. 
Brown in the first number of his paper. That to which he 
gave the most prominence was thus expressed : 

" lu common with the practical priutersof the Territory, we felt it as an unjust re- 
proach upon mechanics, that the Legislature should elect to the ofdce of Territorial Printer 
a man who was not a mechanic and was at the same time enjoying another lucrative office, 
and from having no knowledge of the business, could not perform the duties of the office 
himself, or even supervise their execution in a proper manner. "- 

The principal other reasons were : 

" Comjijlaints from nearly all parts of the Territory of the manner in which the Terri- 
torial paper was conducted," and that its editor " had involved himself in several quar- 
rels, both personal and local, with individuals and portions of the democratic party." 

Whatever the motives, or whatever the justification, the 
effect was seriously to impair the harmony and effectiveness 
of the Democratic party. 

The vote of the people, in April, was about six to one in 
favor of State government, every county having voted for 
it except Grant, where the vote was 351 for and 537 against 
State government. 

The census showed a populati'^n of 15o,2?7, exclusive of 
Chippewa, La'Pointe and Richland counties, from which no 
returns were received. 

On the 1st of August, the Governor issued two proclama- 
tions; one making an apportionment of the members of the 
Council and House of Representatives among the twelve 
election districts into which the Legislative Assembly had 
divided the Territory. 



510 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



The other made an apportionment of the delegates to 
form a constitution, among the several counties, on the basis 
of one delegate to each 1,300 inhabitants as provided by law. 

The following table is arranged so as to show the popula- 
tion of each county, by election districts, as well as the 
number of members of each branch of the Legislative As- 
sembly, apportioned to each election district and the num- 
ber of delegates apportioned to each county : 



o 

I— I 

H 
O 

s 



8 

9 

10 



11 



12 



Name of County. 



Racine 

Walworth 
Rock 

(Iowa 

( Richland . , 
Grant 



f Green . 

I 

-| Danp . 

I 
LSauk.. 



Crawford 

St. Croix 

Chippewa 

La Pointe 

( Dodge 

( Jefferson 

Milwaukee 

( Washington . . 

( Sheboygan . . . 

f Manitowoc . . 

Brown 

Calumet. .. 
Winnebago . . 
Fond du Lac. 

Marquette 

Portage 

, Columbia 

Waukesha 

Totals .... 



m 


w ^ 


6, 


f^ 




H 


KB 


O 


o 


U 


B 


£-1 " 






H 




a 








O 

5>= 


§1 
2§ 


M 

a 
S 




Si 

ft w 


^^ 


<n 


^^ 


fe o 








o & 
o 


dS 


62 


fin 


Oh 


^ 


^ 


!z; 


17,983 


17,9a3 


2 


2 


14 


13,4.39 


13, 439 


1 


2 


10 


12,405 


12,405 


1 


2 


10 


14,9161 








11 


14,916 


1 


3 




No returns ) 
12, 034 








i 


12,034 


1 


2 


9 


4,758' 
8,289 - 
1,003. 
1,4441 








4 


14, 050 


1 


3 


6 








1 








1 


1,419 








1 


2,863 


3 


i 




No returns 
No returns J 

7,787j 








i 








1 








6 


16,467 


i 


3 




8,680( 








rr 


15,025 


15, 925 


1 


3 


12 


7,473) 








6 


9,110 


1 


1 




1,637 S 
620 ~ 

2,662 
836 
732 








i 








1 








o 








1 








1 


12,292 


1 


2 




3,544 
989 
931 

1,969. 
13,793 








3 








1 








1 








2 


13,793 


1 


2 


11 


155,277 


155,277 


13 


26 


125 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 511 

The estimate of population assumed by tiie Legislative 
Assembly for fixing a basis for the number of delegates 
was 117,000, which would have given about one hundred 
members of the convention, but the excess exhibited by the 
census over this estimate resulted in a much more numer- 
ous body than had been anticipated. 

As a rule, to which however there were some exceptions, 
party nominations were made by both parties for delegates 
to the convention, and the persons elected were generally 
attached to the party which was in the ascendant in the 
particular county in which they were elected. 

It was a subject of remark that the ablest men of both 
parties were willing to be, and not unfrequently desirous of 
being candidates for member of the convention to frame 
the fundamental law of the State. The result was that both 
the parties generally nominated their best men, and while 
men of the highest order of talent in the majority party in 
any particular county were elected, others of equal, if not 
superior talents in the minority party were defeated solely 
upon political issues. 

A very large majority of the convention was composed of 
men elected by the Democratic party, but there was a suffi- 
cient number of the members who belonged to the Whig 
party of that day to constitute a respectable minority. 
Among these it is not invidious towards others to mention 
the names of Henry S. Baird, J. Allen Barber, James D. 
Doty and John H. Tweedy, as being the most prominent. 

There were others who prided themselves upon being in- 
dependents, and who attached but little importance to 
party association and disclaimed party allegiance. The 
most marked and able of this class were Thomas P. Burnett 
and Andrew E. Elmore 

It was, however, among those who were devoted to the 
principles and the policies of the Democratic party, perhaps 
for the reason stated, that the greatest number of the most 
brilliant names in the convention were to be found. Of 
these many have since occupied positions of distinction in 
the State. Some of them, alphabetically arranged, are 
mentioned : 

Charles M. Baker. Hiram Barber, Samuel W. Beall, 
Warren Chase, Wm. M. Dennis, Stoddard Judd, Frede- 
rick S. Lovell, David Noggle, Theodore Prentiss, Alex- 
ander W. Randall, George Reed, Edward G. Ryan, A. 



613 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



Hyatt Smith, George B. Smith, John Y. Smith, William 
R. Smith, Elijah Steele, Marshall M. Strong, D. A. J. 
Upham and Ninian E. Whitesides. 

On the day fixed by law, October 5, the delegates elect 
assembled at the Capitol at noon. In the absence of any 
mode of organization previously prescribed, the venerable 
William R. Smith, by the request of many delegates, called 
the convention to order when ji>ro tern, officers were elected 
on inotion and without division. 

A committee was appointed to examine the credentials 
of the delegates. 

The following were the delegates who were elected: 



BROWN. 
David Agry, 
Henry S. Baird. 

CALUMET. 

Lemuel Goodell. 

COLUMBIA. 
Jeremiah Drake, 
La'Fayette Hill. 

CRAWFORD. 
Peter A. R. Brace. 

DANE. 
John M. Babcock, 
Abel Dunning, 
Benjamin Fuller, 
Nathaniel F. Hyer, 
George B. Smith, 
John Y. Smith. 

DODGE. 
HiEAM Barber, 
Wm. M. Dennis, 
Benjamin Granger, 
Stoddard Jodd, 
John H. Manahan, 
Horace D. Patch. 

FOND DU LAC. 
Warren Chase, 
Moses S. Gibson, 
Lorenzo Hazen. 

GRANT. 
J. Allen Barber, 
Lorenzo Bevans, 
Thomas P. Burnett, 
Daniel R. Burt, 
Thomas Cruson, 
James Gilmore, 



GRANT. 
Neely Gray, 
Franklin Z. Hicks, 
James R. Vineyard. 

GREEN. 
Davis Bgwen, 
Hiram Brown, 
William C. Green, 
Noah Phelps 

IOWA. 

Andrew Burnsidk, 
Elihu B. Goodsell, 
Thomas James, 
Thomas Jenkins, 
William I. Madden, 
Moses Meeker, 
Daniel M. Parkinson, 
Wm. R. Smith, 
Moses M. Strong, 
Joshua S. White, 
NiNiAN E. Whitesides. 

JEFFERSON. 
Elihu L. Atwood, 
Samuel T. Clothier, 
George Hyer, 
Theodore Frentiss, 
Aaron Rankin, 
Patrick Rogan, 
Peter H. Turner. 

LATOINTE. 
James P. Hays. 

MANITOWOC. 

EVANDER M. SOPER. 

MARQUETTE. 
Samuel W. Beall. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 



513 



MILWAUKEE. 
Charles E . Browne, 
Horace Chase, 
John Cooper, 
John Crawford, 
Garrett M. Fitzgerald, 
Wallace W. Graham, 
Francis Huebschmann, 
Asa Kinney, 
James Magone, 
John H. Tweeby, 
Don a. J. Upham, 
Garret Vliet. 

PORTAGE. 
Henry C. Goodrich. 

RACINE. 
Stephen O. Bennett, 
James B. Carter, 
Nathaniel Dickinson, 
Haynes French, 
James H. Hall, 
Daniel Harkin, 
Chauncey Kellogg, 
Frederick S Lovell, 
Chatfield H. Parsons, 
Edward G. Ryan. 
Elijah Steele. 
Marshall 'SI. Strong, 
T. S. Stockwell, 
Victor M. Willard, 

ROCK. 
James CnAMBERLAiN, 
John Hackett, 
George B. Hall, 
Sanford p. Hammond, 
Israel Inman, Jr., 
Joseph Kinney, Jr., 
David L. Mills, 
David Noggle, 
Joseph S. Pierce, 
A. Hyatt Smith. 



RICHLAND. 
Edward Combe. 

SAUK. 
William H. Clark. 

ST. CROIX. 
William Holcombk. 

SHEBOYGAN 
David Giddings. 

WALWORTH. 
Charles M. Baker, 
William Bell, 
William Berry, 
Joseph Bowker, 
John W. Boyd, 
M. T. Hawes, 
Lyman H. Seaver, 
Sewall Smith, 
JosiAH Topping, 
Solomous Wakely, 

AVASHINGTON. 
Hopewell Coxe, 
Edward H. Janssen, 
Charles J. Kern, 
BosTwicK O'Connor, 
Patrick Toland, 
Joel F. Wilson. 

WALTi:ESHA. 
Barnes Babccck, 
Charles Burchard, 
Elisha W. Edgerton, 
Pitts Ellis, 
Andrew E. Ec-more, 
WlLUAM R. IIesk, 
Benjamin Hunkins, 
James M. Moore, 
RuFus Parks, 
Alexander W. R.ujdall, 
George Reed. 

WINNEBAGO. 
James Duane Doty. 



No delegate was elected from Chipr>rwa county. 

At the assembling of the convention ninety-five delegates 
were present and twenty-nine absent. Of the absentees, 
eight took their seats during the first week, eighteen during 
the second week, one on the Gth of November, and two, 
Messrs. Stockwell of Racine and Hawes of Walworth, 
did not attend the convention at all. So that of the 125 
83 



514 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

possible delegates, only 122 were ever in attendance, and 
there was never a day when less than 13 of these were ab- 
sent, and some times the absentees numbered forty or more. 

The journal shows that the a,yes and noes were called 274 
times, and that the highest vote recorded was 109, while the 
lowest was 67, but it generally ranged from 80 to 100 and 
one fifth part of the votes were from 100 to 109. 

The members were not sworn, although at the beginning 
of the fifth week of the session, Mr, Randall introduced a 
resolution, that each of them take an oath to faithfully and 
impartially perform his duties as a member and support the 
constitution of the United States. The resolution was laid 
on the table and not again called up. 

The establishment of a second Democratic paper at Mad- 
ison has been mentioned. As a consequence there was a 
divided sentiment among the Democratic members of the 
convention in reference to the bestowal of the little patron- 
age at their command. 

The question of an elective judiciary was one which had 
been considerably discussed before the meeting of the con- 
vention. Some of the Democratic members were well- 
known to favor it; others to be opposed to it, and others to 
be undecided. The Democrat was in favor of it while the 
Argus had neither advocated it nor opposed it. The opin- 
ions of the delegates in reference to the Democrat and 
Argus, and in reference to an elective judiciary were used 
with much effect in the election of the President of the con- 
vention. Don a. J. Upham, who was elected on the fifth 
ballot, was ranked with those who called themselves " pro- 
gressive" Democrats, of whose views the Democrat claimed 
to be an exponent and advocate, as he was also classed with 
the friends of an elective judiciary. 

On the first ballot Mr. Upham received thirty-three votes 
against sixty for other members of the convention, who 
either had no opinions upon these questions or else such as 
were opposed to those of Mr. Upham. His vote continued 
to increase, and on the fifth ballot he received fifty-two 
votes, against forty-one for all others. 

There was a little strife over the election of Secretary, for 
which office La'Fayette Kellogg and Wm. W. Treadway 
were candidates. Mr. Kellogg was elected, having re- 
ceived 48 votes to 41 for Mr. Treadway and 3 scattering. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 515 

The other officers were elected viva voce on nomination 
and without much division. The principal ones were 
Hiram Taylor, Assistant Secretary, and John Stark- 
weather, Sergeant-at-Arms. 

A resolution was adopted as soon as the officers were 
elected, — 

"That the Secretary be directed to invite the resident clergymen of Madison to attend 
alternately and open the convention each morning ■with prayer." 

When the convention met it was of course without any 
rules regulating its proceedings. It was a rule unto itself. 

'My. a. Hyatt Smith on the first day offered a resolution 
that the rules of the Council, so far as applicable, be adopted 
as the rules of the convention until others were adopted. 

On motion of Mr. Judd this resolution was laid on the 
table and a committee of seven appointed to draft rules for 
the convention, of which Mr. Judd was appointed chair- 
man, who on the next day reported a series of seventeen 
rules, regulating the most important of the proceedings. 

The fifth of the rules was an innovation upon the usual 
proceedings of deliberative bodies. It was, that all proposi- 
tions should be considered in the convention, and not in 
committee of the whole. The convention refused to adopt it. 

A part of the eighth rule provided that no member 

should speak longer than at any one time. 

After an unsuccessful attempt to fill the blank, that part of 
the rule was stricken out. 

The twelfth rule provided that the ayes and noes might 
be called at the request of any eight members. This was 
amended by striking out eight and inserting fifteen. 

The thirteenth provided that one fourth of the members 
present might make a call of the convention and require 
absent members to be sent for. This was amended by 
striking out "one fourth*' and inserting "fifteen or one 
fifth," and so amended was adopted. 

A new rule was then adopted in lieu of the fifth, provid- 
ing for the mode of conducting proceedings in committee 
of the whole, when the rules reported, with these modifica- 
tions, were adopted. 

In about two weeks these rules were revised and an 
entire new series adopted. 

"Various propositions were made in reference to the mode 
of determining the number of standing committees to be 



516 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

appointed, with their appropriate designations, when the 
matter was referred to a committee of thirteen, which the 
next day made a report recommending the appointment of 
twenty-two distinct committees to consist of five members 
each. 

In the afternoon of the next day (tlie fourth of the con- 
vention) the President announced the appointment of the 
twenty-two committees. There was nothing remarkable 
about the appointment, except what subsequently occurred 
in reference to the committee "on the organization and func- 
tions of the judiciary." 

That committee as appointed by the President consisted 
of Messrs. Bakek, Ryan, Hiram Barber, Wm. R. Smith and 
O'Connor. It was well understood that all the members of 
this committee were in favor of an elective judiciary, which 
at that time was an experiment, except Mr. Ryan, whose 
opinions as subsequently disclosed were in favor of a judi- 
ciary appointed by the Governor, with the advice and con- 
sent of three fourths of the Senate. 

As soon as the committees were announced Mr. Hiram 
Barber moved that the judiciary committee be increased 
by the appointment of four additional members. The 
motion was opposed by Mr. Moses M. Strong and suj)ported 
by Mr, William R. Smith, and was adopted. 

Mr. Ryan stated that he regarded the action of the con- 
vention as a direct censure upon the committee and the 
chair. The original proposition, he said, referred to the 
committee of thirteen, was that the committee should 
consist of seven members, and that committee had recom- 
mended a reduction of the number to five. Nothing, he con- 
tinued, had been said all this time against the number of 
the judiciary committee, but as soon as it was announced 
a motion was made to increase the committee and it was 
sustained. Messrs. Judd and Hiram Barber denied that 
any censure was implied or intended and the latter dis- 
claimed any such intention in making the motion. Mr. 
Ryan still persisted arid zlAJl that the action of the conven- 
tion w^ould be judged by the act itself and not by the unex- 
pressed intentions of the mover. It would appear on the 
journal with no proviso. The fact was that the convention 
had voted five a sufficient number, but when the committee 
was announced they voted not only that the number was not 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 5I7 

enough but that those who were appointed were incompe- 
tent. 

Mr. Geo. B. Smith did not so construe the action of the 
convention. He hoped the committee would be increased, 
and that the gentleman from Racine (Ryan) would still re- 
tain his station in the committee. 

Mr. Marshall M. Strong said the effect of the motion 
was as his colleague (Ryan) thought. He was on trial. The 
convention said they were not satisfied with the committee. 
The suspicion of incompetency was on the record. 

Mr. A. Hyat Smith said he was satisfied that it might be 
construed into censure. He would, therefore, move a re- 
consideration of the vote. 

The motion was reconsidered but the question recurring 
again on the motion to increase the committee, it was car- 
ried by a vote of 48 to 43. 

Mr. Ryan then asked to be excused from serving on the 
committee, and he was excused. 

The chair then announced the following additions to the 
committee, Messrs. Baird, J. Allen Barber, Moses M. 
Strong, Marshall M. Strong and Steele. 

Mr. Moses M. Strong said he could not consent to serve 
on the committee after what had transpired. The gentle- 
man from Racine (Ryan) thought the motion and the first 
vote a reflection on him. If so the last was a direct insult. 
He asked to be excused and his request was granted. 
Messrs. Marshall M. Strong and Steel were also by their 
request excused, and the committee was filled up to the 
number of nine by the appointment of Messrs. Agry, Geo. 
B. Smith and Tweedy. 

The matter of the disposition of the printing of the con- 
vention and its journal, was one which created no incon- 
siderable feeling among many members of tlie convention. 

On the second day of the session Mr. Gray proposed by 
resolution the appointment of a committee to receive pro- 
posals. 

On the fourth day the resolution offered by Mr. Gray was 
taken up, when Mr. Baker proposed an amendment that 
Benjamin Holt (he was the representative of the Argus) 
be employed to do the incidental printing of the conven- 
tion and print the journal of its proceedings. 

Mr. Elmore offered a substitute for tliis amendment 

"Tliat a printer to the convention be elected forthwith viva voce."' 



518 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The substitute was adopted. The names of the members 
were then called, who responded with the names of the per- 
sons for whom they voted. The result was 50 votes for 
Beriah Brown, 44 for Benjamin Holt and 2 for Wm. 
W. Wyman. 

These preliminary and comparatively unimportant mat- 
ters having been disposed of, the convention was ready to 
enter upon the important work of framing a constitution. 

There was not much delay. On Friday, the fifth day of 
the session, the committee on banks and banking, by Mr. 
Ryan, its chairman, submitted the first report, accompanied 
by an article designed to prohibit banks of issue, and to in- 
hibit the exercise by corporations of any banking powers 
whatever. 

This article was the real prominent cause which resulted 
in the rejection of the constitution, and although it was 
somewhat modified in form, the spirit of it was retained 
and adopted. It is deemed of sufficient importance to insert 
the article at length as it was reported, and to state the 
important modifications, as well as the article, in the form 
it was finally adopted. 

The article, as reported, was as follows : 

" 1 . There shall be no bank of issue within this State. 

2. The Legislature shall have no power to create, authorize or incorporate in any man- 
ner or form, any bank or other institution or corporation having any banking power or 
privilege whatever. 

3. The Legislature shall have no power to confer in any manner or form, upon any 
person or persons, corporations or institutions whatever, any banking power or privilege 
whatever. 

4. No person or persons, corporation or institution, whatever, shall under any pretense 
or authority whatever, in any manner or form whatever, make sign or issue within this 
State any paper money, or any bank note, promissory note, bill, order, check, certificate 
of deposit, or other evidence of debt whatever, intended to circulate as money; and any 
person or persons, or any officer or other agent of any corporation or institution so doing 
shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not less than ten thousand dollars, and 
imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than five years. 

5. No person or persons shall utter, pass or pay or give or receive in payment, any 
paper money or any bank note, promissory note, bill, order, check, certificate of deposit, 
or other evidence of debt, whatever, intended to circulate, as money which shall purport to 
have been issued in this State, before or after the adoption of this constitution, by any per- 
son or persons, corporation or institution whatever; and any person or persons so doing 
shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a simi not less than five hundred dollars or im- 
prisoned not less than three months, or both. 

6. No corporation within this State shall receive deposits of money, make discounts or 
buy or sell bills of exchange, an d any officer or other agent of any corporation so doing 
shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not less than five thousand dollars, and 
imprisoned not less than two years. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 519 

7. It shall be the duty of the Legislature, from time to time as may bo necessary, to 

pass all acts requisite to enforce any provision of this article. 

E. G. Ryan, 

Chairman." 

This article, with another on the same subject submitted 
two clays later, by Mr. Gibson, the minority of the com- 
mittee, were considered in committee of the whole for four 
days and a most exhaustive discussion of the subject of 
banks and banking ensued. 

At this time the paper money currency of the whole 
country was in a deplorable condition. Most of the banks 
of issue had suspended specie payments, and the bank notes 
in circulation were regarded with great distrust. In the 
southwestern part of the Territory the circulating medium 
was exclusively gold and silver, mostly foreign coin. Eng- 
lish sovereigns were paid out and were received at $4.90, 
French five-francs at 95c. In the eastern part a heteroge- 
neous currency existed, made up of the bank notes of the 
Eastern States — mostly New York and New England — 
and of the certificates of deposit of the Wisconsin Marine 
and Fire Insurance Company, usually known as "Mitchell's 
Bank." These had never been discredited or their redemp- 
tion at the bank in coin refused, and notwithstanding the 
general belief and the deliberate declaration of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly, that their issue w^as not authorized by the 
charter, they had the general confidence of the community 
in the whole valley of the Mississippi. 

In this condition of the curre ncy there was an almost uni- 
versal sentiment throughout Wisconsin of opposition to the 
conferring by law of banking powers and privileges upon 
individuals or corporations, especially the power of issuing 
paper money currency. At the same time there was a 
very prevalent sentiment that all departments of banking, 
except the issue of currency, including deposits, discount 
and exchange, should be left entirely free and untram- 
melled to individuals. 

These sentiments were almost unanimously reflected by 
the delegates to the convention, while there was a respect- 
able minority who regarded them as transient and tempo- 
rary, and that the time would come in the growth and 
progress of the State Avhen the creation of corporations, Avith 
all the usual powers of banks, would be demanded by the 
wants of the people. 

The "Ryax report." as it was called, to the extent that it 



520 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

provided a constitutional prohibition of the creation of 
banking corporations, or the issue in any way or by any 
means, of paper money currency, expressed the sentiment 
of about four fifths of the members of the convention, 
while there was not a majority who were willing to carry 
their opinions to what the report presented as the logical 
result of providing "pains and penalties" for violating the 
constitutional prohibition. 

Hence there was little room and less need for argument 
upon the important principles contained in the report, and 
the discussion was limited mainly to the question of detail 
whether the remedy for the violation of the constitution 
should be contained in the constitution itself, or left to sub- 
sequent legislative action. 

Although the question of incorporating "pains and penal- 
ties" into the constitution was the only one about which 
there was much difference of opinion, yet the discussion 
took a very wide range. 

Those who spoke in favor of the article as reported by 
the committee were Messrs. Ryan, A. H. Smith, J. Y. Smith, 
Whitesides, Elmore, Noggle, Bevans, Clark, Kellogg, 
Harkin and Moses M. Strong. 

Those who spoke against it, and in favor of various mod- 
ifications of it were Messrs. Gibson, Wm. K Smith, George 
B. Smith, Baker, Burnett, Hiram Barber, Randall, Judd, 
Beall, Steele, Dennis, Parks, Hicks, Horace Chase, 
HuNKiNS, BuRCHARD and Moore. 

Numerous amendments were proposed both in committee 
of the whole and after it was reported back to the conven- 
tion, several of which were adopted. 

When it became apparent that a majority were opposed 
to the penal features of the article, Mr. Ryan proposed a 
substitute for those sections containing such features, which 
was adopted, as was also a new section proposed by him de- 
claring that it should not be lawful to circulate after 1847 
bank notes less than ten dollars, nor after 1849 less than 
twenty dollars. 

The following is the article as finally adopted: 

" ON BANKS AND BANKING. 

Section 1. There shall be no bank of issue within this State. 

Section 2. The legislature shall not have power to authorize or incorporate by any- 
general or special law any bank or other institution having any banking power or privilege 
or to confer upon any corporation, institution, jjerson or persons any banking power or 
privilege. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 521 

Section 3. It shall not be lawful for any corporation, institution, person or persons 
within this State, under any pretense or authority, to make or issue any paper money, 
note, bill, certificate or other evidence of debt whatever, intended to circulate as money. 

Section 4. It shaU not be lawful for any corporation within this State, under any pre- 
tense or authority to exercise the business of receiving dejiosits of money, making discounts 
or buying or selling bills of exchange or to do any other banking business whatever. 

Section 5. No branch or agency of any banking institution of the United States or of 
any State or Teriitory within or witliout the United States shall be estabhshed or main- 
tained within this State. 

Section 6. It shall not be lawful to circulate within this State after the year 1847, any 
paper uiouey, note, bill, certificate or otlier evidence of debt whatever, intended to circu- 
late as money, issued without this Slate of any denomination less than ten dollars, or after 
the year 1849 of any denomination less than twenty dollai's. 

Section 7. The legislature shall, at its first session after the adoption of this constitu- 
tion, and from time to time thereafter, as may be necessary, enact adequate penalties for 
the punishment of all violations and evasions of the provisions of this article." 

An amendment was proposed by Mr, Tweedy which pro- 
vided that banking associations might be formed under 
general kiws but that any such law should be submitted to 
a vote of the electors at a general election and be approved 
by a majority of the voters at such election before it be- 
comes a law. For this amendment there were but 21 votes 
and 80 against it. 

Another proposition was submitted by Mr. Eeed for the 
separate submission of an article, giving to the legislature 
powers similar to those proposed in the amendment offered 
by Mr. Tweedy. But the convention would have no sepa- 
rate submission and the proposition of Mr. Reed was indefi- 
nitely postponed by a vote of G5 to 30. 

The next article considered by the convention was that 
" On Suffrage and the Elective Franchise." 

In view of the opposition and excited feeling which had 
been exhibited to the acts of the Legislative Assembly con- 
ferring upon unnaturalized foreigners the right of voting 
for or against State government, and for delegates to the 
convention, it would seem reasonable to have expected some 
exhibitions of that feeling in the convention. 

The article, in that respect, only required the declaration 
of intention as a qualification of the right of sufi'rage. And, 
although there might have been, in committee of the whole, 
some attempt to restrict the right to citizens, yet if there 
was, it was so feebly sustained that it was never renewed in 
the convention, where the ayes and noes could be had. 

The principal controversy in the discussion of this article 
was upon the subject of negro suffrage. 



522 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

This arose in the first instance upon a proposition of Mr. 
Baker for a separate submission of an article giving the 
right of suffrage to " colored male citizens." The proposi- 
tion was discussed at great length, and defeated by a vote 
of 47 to 51. 

The article was then adopted substantially as reported by 
the committee, except that voting by ballot was substituted 
for a viva voce vote, as recommended by the committee. 

Afterward a resolution was introduced by Mr. Randall 
for the separate submission of a separate article, which pro- 
vided that all colored male citizens should have the right to 
vote for all elective officers, and after being amended so as 
to provide that they should also be eligible to all offices, was 
adopted by a vote of 53 to 46. The delegates who changed 
votes on this question were Messrs. Burchard, Graham, 
Hackett, Janssen, and Wilson. 

Thomas P. Burnett, one of the delegates from Grant 
county, was one of the most distinguished members of the 
convention. 

Detained at his residence by the sickness of his wife and 
mother, he did not take his seat until the 14th of October, 
and remained only ten da5^s, when he was called to his 
home by their more serious illness.' 

On the first day of November his mother died at the age 
of seventy -three, and four days later, on the fifth, Mr. Bur- 
n ett and his wife both, on the same day, yielded to the 
same fatal disease, and their mortal remains were buried in 
one common grave. 

It was not until Tuesday, the 10th of November — so slow 
were the means of communication at that time between the 
Capital and his secluded home — that Mr. J. Allen Barber 
made the announcement to the convention of the death of 
his illustrious colleague. 

The usual resolutions of respect and sorrow were adopted 
and as a further mark of respect the convention adjourned 
over until the following Thursday. 

Thomas Pendleton Burnett was born in Pittsylvania 
county, Virginia, September 3, 1800. When he was but a 
child his father migrated to Kentucky. He studied law, was 
admitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Paris, Ken- 
tucky. In October, 1 829, he was appointed sub-Indian agent 
at Prairie du Chien, and removed there in the following 
month of June. 



TEKKITOKY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 523 

In December, 1836, he married Lucia Maria, second 
daughter of Rev. Alfred Brunson, then about twenty 
years of age. In the spring of 1837 he changed his resi- 
dence to Cassville in Grant county, and soon after re- 
moved to a large and vahiable farm, which he had made in 
the town of Patch Grove, where he continued to live until 
his death. 

On the 27th of October, the committee on the organiza- 
tion and functions of the judiciary, in the formation of 
which there had been so much trouble, by Mr. C. M. Baker, 
its chairman, submitted an extended report, accompanied 
by an article on the subject, which was proposed as part of 
the constitution. 

The report says : 

" The leading features of the system proposed for adoption are briefly these: 

First, a supreme bench composed of three justices distinct from tlie ciicuit judges. 

Second, five circuit courts subject to iucrease or modification as the Legislature shall 
deem expedient. 

Third, the union of law and equity powers in the judges of the supreine and circuit 
courts, reserving to the Legislature the right to establish a distinct court of chancery 
whenever it shall be deemed expedient. 

Fourth, interchange of circuits by the circuit judges, so that no judge shall preside in 
the same circuit more than one year in five successive years; and 

Fifth, the election of the supreine and circuit court judges by the people, the former by 
general ticket, the latter by districts." 

The largest part of the report was devoted to presenting 
the arguments in favor of an elective judiciary. 

Two members of the committee, Messrs. George B. Smith 
and O'Connor, submitted the next day a minority report, 
which differed from the majority report in only one very 
important feature. 

It proposed a separate supreme court of three judges, 
elected by the State at large, and five district judges, one to 
be elected in each of the five districts, and that moreover 
there should be elected in each county, two or three asso- 
ciate judges, and that the district judge and the associate 
judges should form the district court of that county, and 
that the associate judges in each county should have juris- 
diction of all probate matters. 

It was not until the 10th of November that the articles 
relative to the judiciary came up for consideration. They 
were then considered in committee of the whole where they 
were discussed and amended for four days and some very 
material changes were made. 



524 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The sentimePxt in favor of an elective j udiciary proved to 
be so strong, that only a small part of the time was spent 
upon that question. The vote in favor of it was 78 to 20. 

The twenty were Messrs. Atwood, J. M. Babcock, Baird, 
Brace, Clothier, Drake, Elmore, Hackett, Hunkins, Geo. 
Hyer, Kellogg, Prentiss, Randall, Rogan, Ryan, Mar- 
shall M. Strong, Moses M. Strong, Tweedy, Vliet and 

WlLLARD. 

The principal controversy was, whether there should be a 
separate Supreme Court, or whether the circuit judges 
should constitute the Supreme Court. This was known as 
the nisi prius system. 

These differences were adjusted by a proposition which 
was finally adopted by a vote of 77 to 12, in this form: 

" For the term of five years from the first election of the judges of the circuit courts, 
and thereafter until the Legislature shall otherwise provide, the judges of the several cir- 
cuit coiu-ts shall be judges of the Supi-eme Court," etc. 

Mr. Ryan moved, while this proposition was pending, to 
strike out the " five year" provision, so as to make the nisi 
prius system permanent and unchangeable. 

This amendment was lost by a vote of 30 to 58. 

It was proposed to strike out the provision in these words: 

" No election for judges, or for any single judge, shall be held vpithin thirty days of any 
other general election." 

The motion to strike out was lost by a vote of 30 to 63. 

The article as finally amended was adopted by a vote of 
86 to 13. The thirteen were Messrs. Baird, J. Allen Bar- 
ber, Clothier, Coxe, Crawford, Elmore, George Hyer, 
Prentiss, Randall, Ryan, Moses M. Strong, Tweedy, and 

WlLLARD. 

Wisconsin was a pioneer in many reforms. Perhaps the 
Diost noteworthy of novelties in its first attempt to adopt a 
State constitution, was the incorporation into the funda- 
mental law of a provision securing to married women the 
right to their separate property, and to debtors the exemp- 
tion of a homestead from the claims of their creditors. 

The article upon these subjects met with strenuous oppo- 
sition. With some, because they were opposed to the ideas 
which it embodied; with others, who, while they would have 
consented to the experiment as a legal enactment, liable to 
repeal, were unwilling to adopt it as a constitutional pro- 
vision; while still others objected that the two ideas, of mar- 
ried women's rights and homestead exemption, had no 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1846. 525 

necessary connection or association with each other, and 
that incorporating the two in one article was a species of 
"log rolHng" which ought not to be permitted. 
The article as finally adopted was as follows: 

"Section 1. All property, real and personal, of the wife, owned by her at the time of 
her marriage, and also that acquired by her after marriaj^e, by g-ift, devise, descent, or 
otherwise than from her husband, shall be her separate property. Laws shall be passed 
providing for the registry of the wife's property, and more clearly defining the rights of 
the wife thereto, as well as to property held by her with her husband, and for carrying out 
the provisions of this section. Where the wife has a separate projierty from that of the 
husband the same shall be liable for the debts of the wife contracted before marriage 

"Section 2. Forty acres of land to be selected by the owner thereof, or the homestead of 
a family not exceeding forty acres, which said land or homestead shall not be included 
within any city or village, and shall not exceed in value one thousand dollars or instead 
thereof (at the option of the owner) any lot or lots in any city or village, being the home- 
stead of a family and not exceeding in value one thousand dollars, owned and occupied 
by any resident of this State, shall not be subject to forced sale on execution for any 
debt or debts growing out of or founded upon contract, either express or implied, made 
after the adoption of this constitution. Provich'd, That such exemption shall not affect iu 
any manner any mechanic's or laborer's lien or any mortgage thereon lawfully obtained, 
nor shall the owner, if a married man, be at liberty to alienate such real estate unless by 
consent of the wife." 

While the article was under consideration a substitute 
for the first section was offered by Mr. Taveedy, providing 
that the Legislature should enact suitable laws to effect 
the objects of the section. This was defeated by a vote of 
4.3 to 56. 

Much controversy arose as to the phraseology of the 
second section, and several different forms of expression 
were proposed and rejected, but to Mr. NoG(iLE belongs the 
honor of proposing the form of words in which it was 
adopted. 

No separate vote was taken upon each of the two sec- 
tions, but the entire article was passed by a vote of 61 to 34. 

Mr. Marshall M. Strong had been a strenuous opponent 
of this article and of each of its component parts, and had 
proposed several amendments to it which were rejected. 
After recording his vote against it as one of the 34, he left 
the hall of the convention to return no more, and on the 
evening of that day the President presented his resignation 
as a member of the convention. 

The resignation contained no reason, but it was generally 
understood that the passage of this article was the immedi- 
ate moving cause. At any rate, from that time forward he 
opposed the adoption of the constitution, and the adoption 



526 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

of this article was a prominent cause assigned for his 
opposition. 

It was provided in the schedule, which formed a part of 
the constitution, that it should be submitted to a vote of the 
electors on the first Tuesday of April, 1847. 

The history given of the first convention is limited to the 
subjects of banks and banking, negro suffrage, judiciary 
and the article in relation to the rights of married women 
and homestead exemption. This is not because the interest 
of the convention w^as confined to these, but because they 
constituted the principal points of attack of those who op- 
posed the ratification of the constitution and succeeded in 
defeating it. 

The convention adjourned on the IGth December, and 
during the remaining two weeks of the year nothing oc- 
■curred of sufficient importance to be worthy of record. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1847. 

There was a very great contrast between the anticipa- 
tions of a change from a Territorial to a State government 
that pervaded the people of the Territory in the early part 
of the year 18-4G, and those v/hich existed at the beginning 
of the year 1847. 

Then little doubt existed that a change was imminent, 
and the vote in April of five eighths of the voters in favor 
of it seemed to insure it. As soon as circumstances would 
admit a convention to form a constitution was held, the 
result and many of the details of whose proceedings have 
been given. 

Now, at the advent of what had been generally supposed 
would be the last year of Territorial government, a great 
change and with many a great disappointment had fallen 
upon the spirit of their anticipations. 

The resignation a few days before the adjournment of 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 527 

the convention, of one of its most prominent, able and influ- 
ential members, and withal one of the recognized leaders of 
the Democratic party, for the avowed reason of dissatisfac- 
tion with the constitution, and the avowed purpose of 
making that dissatisfaction effective in its defeat if possible? 
produced a marked effect in promoting the opposition to its 
adoption, and with the co-operation of other prominent 
democrats, rendered it impossible to obtain for it the sup- 
port of the dominant party as a party ineasure. 

The result was the development of a very powerful oppo- 
sition to the adoption of the constitution, consisting of 
almost the entire body of voters in the Whig party, and a 
large number — perhaps a moiety — of those in the Demo- 
cratic party. 

This opposition was exhibited from and before the begin- 
ning of the year until the decision of the question on the 
first Tuesday of April. But a statement of the grounds of 
it and its modes must be postponed for some account of the 
congressional and home legislation affecting the Territory 
which was occurring during this period. 

The twenty-ninth Congress which commenced its second 
session on the seventh day of December, 1840, did not act on 
the hypothesis that the constitution would not be adopted by 
the people, but during that session passed "' An act for the 
admission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union." 

The preamble recited that 

" Whereas, the people of the Territory of Wisconsin did on the sixteenth day of De- 
cember, 184G, by a convention of delegates called and assembled for that purpose, form for 
themselves a constitution and State government, which said constitution is republican; 
and said convention having asked the admission of said Territory into the Union as a 
State on an equal footing with the original states." The act then prescribed " That the 
State of Wisconsin be, and the same is hereby declared to be, one of the United States of 
America, and is hereby admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
states in all respects whatever." 

The first constitution declared that the State consented to 
and accepted the boundaries prescribed in the act of Con- 
gress of August Gth, 1840, which adopted the St. Croix River 
from near its source to its mouth as the western boundary, 
but proposed to Congress, in the article on boundaries, the 
following alteration 

"As the preference of the State of Wisconsin, and if the same shall be assented and 
•agreed to by the Congress of the United States, then the same shall be and forever remain 
obligatory on the State of Wisconsin, viz. : Leaving the aforesaid boundary line at the 



538 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

first rapids in the River St. Louis; thence in a direct line southwardly to a point fifteen 
miles east of the most easterly point in Lake St. Croix; thence due south to the main 
channel of the Mississippi River or Lake Pepin; thence down tlie said main channel as 
prescribed in said act." 

This " direct line soutliwardly/' if it had been adopted as 
the boundary between Wisconsin and Minnesota, would 
have run near the range line between ranges seventeen and 
eighteen west, leaving out of Wisconsin the whole of the 
St. Croix River below where the boundary intersected it, 
about half of Pierce, St. Croix and Polk counties and a large 
part of Burnett county. 

The act of Congress gave its assent to the change of 
boundary proposed in the first article of the constitution, 
and if the constitution had been adopted, the western bound- 
ary of the State would have been that expressed as the 
" preference of the State " in the constitution. 

But another section of the act of admission declared it to 
be a fundamental condition of the admission of said State 
of Wisconsin into the Union, that the constitution adopted 
a1 Madison on the 16th day of December, 1846, shall be as- 
sented to by the qualified electors in the manner and at the 
time prescribed in the ninth section of the twentieth article 
of said constitution. 

The appropriations by Congress for the salaries of the Ter- 
ritorial officers and for legislative expenses, were the same 
as the preceding year. 

No appropriations were made at this session for rivers or 
harbors. A few were n:iade for light-houses, among which 
was one for a light-house at Southport of $4,000, and at or 
near Tail Point, at the Mouth of Fox River, ^4,000. 

An act was passed creating a new land district, called the 
Chippewa Land District, which included all the territory be- 
tween the Mississippi River, and the fourth principal merid- 
ian north of town 22, and all between the fourth meridian 
and the W isconsin River north of town 39, 

The right to enter two hundred acres of land, at $1.25 per 
acre, was granted to the citizens of Beetown, in Grant 
county, for the use and benefit of the occupants thereof. It 
had been reserved from sale as mineral lands, and the vil- 
lage of Beetown had been built upon it. 

The right of pre-emption to the northeast quarter and east 
one half of the northwest quarter of section 36, town 1, range 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 529 

1 east, was granted to Philip F. Dekrixg and Robert H. 
Champion. This was valuable mineral land, had long been 
" claimed" by Messrs, Derring and Champion, though re- 
served from sale, and the village of New Diggings had 
grown up upon it. 

The first session of the fifth Legislative Assembly was 
convened at Madison on the 4tli day of January, 1847. 

The members were elected under a new apportionment 
made by the Governor, in pursuance of a law passed at the 
preceding session, and was based upon the population June 1, 
184G, as shown by the census taken that year. 

The effect of the apportionment was to give to the eastern 
counties an increased representation, which was taken from 
the western counties. 

The following is a list of the members of each house: 

council. 

Broivn, Columbia, Fond du Lac, Manitoivoc, Marquette, 
Portage and Winnebago: Mason C. Darling. 
Milwaukee: Horatio N. Wells. 

Bacine: Frederick S. LovELLand Marshall M. Strong. 
Walworth: Henry Clark. 
Rock: Andrew Palmer. 
loiva and Richland: William Singer. 
Waukesha: Joseph Turner. 
Crawford: Benjamin F. Manahan. 
Grant: Orris McCartney. 

Dane, Green, and Sauk: Alexander L. Collins. 
Dodge and Jefferson: John E. Holmes. 
Washington and Sheboygan: Chauncey M. Phelps. 

house of representatives. 

Bacine: Uriah Wood and Elisha Raymond. 

Walworth: Charles A. Bronson and Palmer Gardiner. 

Mihvaukee: William Shew, Andrew Sullivan and 
William W. Brown. 

Iowa and Richland: Timothy Burns, James D. Jenkins 
and Thomas Chilton. 

Grant: Armstead C. Brown and William Richardson. 

Dane, Green and Sauk: Charles Lum, William A. 
Wheeler and John W. Stewart. 

Sheboygan and Washington: Harrison C. Hobart. 
34 



§30 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Dodge and Jefferson: George W. Green, John T. 
Haight and James Giddings. 

Rock: Jared G. Winslow and James M. Burgess. 

Waukesha: Joseph Bond, and Chauncey G. Heath. . 

Crawford: Joseph AV. Furber, 

Brown, Columbia, Fond du Lac, Manitoicoc, Marquette, 
Portage and Winnebago: Elisha Morrow, and Hugh 
McFarlane: 

A very large proportion of the members of both houses 
were without legislative experience. But three members of 
the Council and four members of the House had ever been 
members of the Territorial Legislature. 

In the Council, Marshall M. Strong had, previously, 
often been a member of the Council; Mason C. Darling had 
been continuously a member of the House from 1840 to 
1846, and Horatio IST. Wells had been a member of the 
House in 1839 and 1840. 

In the House of Representatives, William Shew had 
been a member at three different sessions; Joseph Bond at 
two, and Armstead C. Brown and Elisha Morrow were 
both members at the previous session of 1846. 

All the members were in attendance at the opening of the 
session, except Messrs. Strong and Manahan, in the Coun- 
cil, and Mr. Furber, in the House. 

The two houses were immediately organized, by the 
appointment of Mason C. Darling, President pro tern, of the 
the Council, and William Shew, Speaker pro tern, of the 
House, both of whom were subsequently elected by ballot, 
as the presiding officers of their respective houses. 

Thomas McHugh was elected Secretary of the Council 
and LaFayette Kellogg, Chief Clerk of the House of 
Representatives. 

The customary messages announcing the organization of 
both branches of the legislative assembly were inter- 
changed, when the Governor, having been waited upon by 
a joint committee, met the two houses in joint assembly 
on the second day of the session and read, in person, his 
annual message. 

The early admission of Wisconsin into the Union was 
referred to in the message in favorable terms. 

The appointment of a joint committee to ascertain if 
practicable the amount of the indebtedness of the Territory 
was recommended, one reason for which was that — 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 531 

"As the present will doubtless be the last meeting of the Ijegislative Assembly during 
the Territorial government, it is clue to the people as well as the creditors of the Territory 
that this investigation should take place." 

Memorials to Congress for appropriations for harbors at 
Milwaukee, Racine, and Soiithport were recommended. 

The Governor evinced his interest in the military defense 
of the Territory against Indian disturbance by a repetition 
of his recommendation for a reorganization of the militia 
and its oflBcers. In this connection he also stated that in 
accordance with a request of the Secretary of War, one 
company of volunteer infantry composed of citizens of 
Crawford county, had been nmstered into the United States 
service, to occupy Fort Crawford in the absence of regular 
troops. 

This company was commanded by Captain Wyram 
Knowlton, afterwards elected judge of the sixth judicial 
circuit, under the State government, and for about three 
years one of the judges of the Supreme court. 

Our relations with the Menomonee and Chippewa Indians 
the principal tribes remaining within the Wisconsin superin- 
tendency, were represented as "of the most friendly char- 
acter." 

The purchase by the United States of the Menomonee 
country, at least that portion of it lying between the Wolf 
River and the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, 
the message represented as "desirable." 

E. R. HuGUNiN had been elected Sergeant-at-Arms of the 
House, and having obtained leave of absence for a few days 
towards the close of the session, William A. Barstow, 
afterwards Secretary of State and then Governor, was 
elected Sergeant-at-Arms j)^^o t<^^n- The fact is worthy of 
mention as an illustration of the equality of the workings 
of our republican government. 

It w^as but nineteen da^^s from the time when the conven- 
tion to form a constitution adjourned, and submitted that 
fundamental law to the people for their adoption or rejec- 
tion on the 4th day of April, until the Legislative Assembly 
met. But within these few daj^s a warm, unmistakable 
and somewhat vigorous, though unorganized opposition to 
the adoption of the constitution had been developed. 

That opposition had its representation in the Legislative 
Assembly ; much stronger proportionately in the Council 



/ 

533 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

than- in the house. Marshall M. Strong was by common 
consent recognized as entitled to the distinction — honorable 
or otherwise, from the stand-point from which it was 
viewed — of being the leader of this opposition among the 
people and in the Council, where he was ably assisted by 
Messrs. Wells, Lovell, Collins and others. 

A number of petitions, asking for the passage of a law 
providing for the holding of another convention for the 
adoption of another constitution in the contingency that the 
first should not be adopted, were presented, and in the 
Council referred to the judiciary committee consisting of 
Messrs. Wells, Strong and Collins. The committee re- 
ported a bill, making all appropriate provisions for such a 
convention, accompanied by a report, the re-production of 
which is justified by the interest which then surrounded the 
question. They say: 

"The committee do not feel called upon to express any opinion as to the merits of the 
constitution already proposed, or to speculate on the probabilities of its rejection. 

"It is enough for us to know that the electors of the territory have the power to refuse 
to it their sanction, and that a respectable portion of them, already looking to such an 
event, have asked the passage of the law in question. 

"The contingency to meet which this provision is asked, has already happened in other 
territories, and by possibility at least might happen in Wisconsin. 

" Provision by law for a second convention subjects the electors to no trouble and the 
State to no expense, while it leaves the people free to exercise their choice, either to take 
the constitution now presented to them, or to take prompt measures to secure a better 
one. 

" To withhold such a provision would seem to be assuming on the part of the Legislature 
to prejudge the question now submitted to the people, or would at least be saying to them 
* you must take the constitution now offered to you, or you shall have none with our aid 
and consent.' Such a position it is presumed this body does not wish to occupy. 

"Regarding the rejection of the constitution as barely possible within the sovereign 
choice of the people, the committee cannot deem it wise or necessary, in case of such 
contingency to incur the expense of a special session of the Legislative Assembly or to 
submit to the delay of awaiting the action of a futiu-e Legislature. 

"Having the power now to make the requisite provisions, and being called upon to do so, 
the committee deem it the duty of this body to pass the law asked, leaving it to the choice 
of the people to make use of it or not, as they may deem proper." 

The bill reported by the committee provided for a new 
convention to be held in June and was generally regarded 
as the most important one of the session. It certainly ex- 
cited more interest than any other. It was very f ull}^ and 
ably discussed by its supporters and opponents in the Coun- 
cil, where the subject was so thoroughly exhausted that 
there was little disposition to discuss it in the House. 
• The leading speech in the Council was that of Mr. Strong 



TERRITORY OF AVISCONSIN IN 1847. 533 

which not only presented the arguments in favor of the bill 
itself, but was a very able and exhaustive argument against 
the adoption of the constitution, and was extensively used 
as a campaign document in the discussions before the 
people. 

The principal arguments in support of the bill itself were 
those embodied in the report of the committee. 

Some of the arguments against it were that it was an un- 
warrantable interference by the Legislature with a question 
then pending before the people, which would be construed 
into an expression of an opinion by the Legislature in op- 
position to the constitution, and would tend to impair the 
free and fair expression of the opinions of the people on the 
subject. 

Anotlier objection was the expense of another convention. 

Another, the uncertainty of obtaining any better con- 
stitution. 

Another, the constitution could be easily amended. 

Another — of a party character — that another conven- 
tion would injuriously affect the Democratic party — tlien 
dominant. 

The ultimate argument against the bill was that if the 
pending constitution should not be adopted the Governor 
could call a special session of the Legislature. 

A vote on the bill was had in the Council, on the Gth of 
February, when it passed by a vote of 7 to G. 

Those who voted in the affirmative were Messrs. Collins, 
Holmes, Lovell, McCartney, Strong, Turner and Wells. 

The negative votes were those of Messrs. Clark, Mana- 
HAN, Palmer, Phelps, Singer, and Darling. 

The bill came up for consideration in the House of Repre- 
sentatives on the 9th of February, when it was indefinitely 
postponed by a vote of 18 to 8, all the members being pres- 
ent, and all thus voting to defeat the bill except Messrs. 
Bronson, a. C. Brown, W. W. Brown, Furber, Gardner, 
Haight, Heath, and Richardson. 

The exciting questions connected with the bill were thus 
transferred from the Legislative Halls to the forum of the 
people. 

The subject of railroads, and especially the passage of 
laws granting the franchise of constructing them occupied 
much of the attention of the Legislature, and excited more 



534 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

interest than any other matter except the questions con- 
nected with State government and the constitution. 

The first bill upon this subject was the second to be intro- 
duced in the House on any subject, and was presented by 
Mr. HoBART, and incorporated the Sheboygan and Fond du 
Lac Railroad Company with the franchise of constructing a 
railroad " beginning at Sheboygan and terminating at Fond 
du Lac." 

The bill was introduced on the 11th of January, referred 
to one of the standing committees, then considered in com- 
mittee of the whole, and passed the House on the 18th of 
January without opposition or even a division. It passed 
the Council on the 22d of January without serious opposi- 
tion. The ayes and noes were called on ordering it to a 
third reading, when twelve voted in the affirmative and only 
one — Mr. Clark — in the negative. 

This unanimity was remarkable, in view of the differences 
of opinion which were soon after developed in relation to 
granting similar franchises in the more southern part of the 
Territory, and was probably in consequence of a prevalent 
opinion that a railroad from Sheboygan to Fond du Lac was 
a visionary chimera, and that if ever built it could not come 
in competition with a road extending west froin Milwau- 
kee, Racine, or Southport. 

Simultaneously with the introduction of the Sheboygan 
Bill by Mr. Hobart, a bill was introduced by Mr. A. C. 
Brown, to incorporate the Milwaukee, Madison and Missis- 
sippi Railroad Company — Potosi being the contem- 
plated western terminus. This encountered some local 
hostility, and before it ever came to a vote was laid on the 
table and the House refused to again take it up. 

No one appeared to suppose that more than one railroad 
could be built or supported across the Territory between the 
Lake and the Mississippi River, and a proposition to 
authorize one to be built from either Milwaukee, Racine or 
Southport westward, was by many of the citizens of the 
points not named, regarded as a direct blow at their pros- 
perity. 

Bills were pending in both houses granting charters to 
construct railroads, some from one point and some from 
another; when on the 25th of January Mr. Wells offered 
in the council a joint resolution 

"That all bills for the construction of railroads from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 535 

"River, now before either house, be referred to a joint committee of three from each house, 
"with instructions to report one bill for a railroad, either with or without points." 

A motion was made to strike out the words "eitlier with 
or," so as to leave it "without points." This was defeated 
by a vote of 6 to 6. The resolution was then adopted in the 
Council by a vote of 7 to 5. On tlie next day it was adopted 
by the House by a vote of 13 to 12. 

The committee consisted of Messrs. Wells, Strong, and 
Palmer, of the Council, and Haight, Richardson and Ray- 
mond, of the House. 

The next day after their appointment the joint committee 
reported a bill to incorporate "the Lake Michigan and 
Mississippi Raih'oad Company." The bill created twenty-six 
commissioners, who were named, to receive subscrip- 
tions to the capital stock; of whom four resided in Milwau- 
kee county, four in Racine and two in each of the counties 
of Walworth, Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa, Dane, Jefferson, 
Dodge, and Waukesha. The capital was to be $1,500,000, in 
shares of $100 each, and whenever 10,000 shai-es were sub- 
scribed, and $5 on each share paid, the company was to be 
organized by the election of nine directors. 

The company was authorized to locate and construct a 
railroad — 

"From such eh'gible point south of township number 8, on Lake Michigan, to such 
" eligible point on the Mississippi River, in the county of Grant, as shall be determined 
"upon by a vote of the stockholders." 

The bill passed the House on the 30th of January by a 
vote of 13 to 11, and on the 2d of February it passed the 
Council by a vote of 12 to 1, Mr. Singer alone voting in the 
negative. 

The passage of this resolution did not, nor did the pas- 
sage of the bill reported by the committee, have the effect 
of suppressing attempts to introduce other bills. 

On the same day that the bill "without points" was 
reported in the House, two bills were introduced by Mr. 
Lovell, one (No. 28) to incorporate the "Southern Railroad 
Company of Wisconsin," the other (Xo. 29) to incorporate 
the "Racine and Mississippi Railroad Company," and one 
(No. 31) by Mr. Turner, to incorporate the "Milwaukee and 
Waukesha Railroad Company." 

The two bills introduced by Mr. Lovell were both laid 
on the table on the 4th of February and not again taken up. 

The bill introduced by Mr. Turner passed the Council 
without serious opposition. One incident however occurred. 



536 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

which in view of later judicial decisions, is worthy of being 
reproduced. It was an amendment offered to the bill by 
Mr. LovELL and subsequently withdrawn by him. 

In the celebrated (so called) "Granger" cases (The At- 
torney General vs. Railroad Companies, 35 Wis. R,, 425) 
Chief Justice Ryan in delivering the opinion of the court 
says (p. 587) — 

"On the argument we called on the Attorney General for information on this point (the 
power of the Legislature to repeal the charter), we were only informed that the Territorial 
charter contained a reserved power to alter or repeal. On examination we find this to be 
a mistake. The only power reserved is in section 20 of the act. And that only provides 
that in case of violation of the charter by the company, the Territorial or State Legisla- 
ture might resume the rights and privileges granted by it. The right reserved in this 
section is dependent on violation of the charter. That must first be established. That is 
clearly a judicial function." 

The court is here speaking of the charter of the "Mil- 
waukee and Waukesha Railroad Company," approved 
February 11, 1847, under which the Chicago, Milwaukee & 
St, Paul Railway Company claimed its franchises; and in 
reference to that the court says (p. 588) : 

"We hold the territorial charter of 1847, enlarged by the territorial act of 1848 to be the 
existing charter of the road built under it from Milwaukee to Prairie du Chien." The 
court further says (p. 592): "We feel bound to hold the territorial charter of 1847, enlarged 
by the territorial act of 1848, to be a contract within the prohibition of the Federal con- 
stitution, the obligation of which the State can pass no law to impair; and that the pro- 
visions of chapter 273 of 1874 ('Potter' law), limiting the tolls of the railroads operated 
by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company, if applied to the road from Milwaukee 
to Prairie du Chien, built under that charter, would impair the obligation of the contract 
of that charter, and that, therefore, those provisions of chapter 273 do not apply to that 
road." 

It is evident that if the charter of 1847, had reserved the 
power to alter, amend or repeal it, an opposite decision of 
the court would have been made. 

It is therefore of some interest to present the fact, that 
while this bill was pending, Mr. Lovell offered the follow- 
ing amendment: 

"Sec. — This act may be altered, amended or repealed at any time by the Legislatm-e of 
Wisconsin." 

Mr. H. IST. Wells said that the amendment was offered 
from motives of hostility to the bill, which he attributed to 
local jealousy of Milwaukee, felt by the members from Ra- 
cine and Southport, That he was ready to support any bill 
in favor of Racine or Southport. All he complained of was 
the hostility which was manifested to any bill which pro- 
posed Milwaukee as a point for a terminus. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847 537 

Mr. LovELL disclaimed any feeling of hostility toward 
Milwaukee, and then withdrew his amendment, when the 
bill was passed without the reservation of these powers to 
the Legislature. 

When the bill came into the House, it met with serious 
opposition and repeated delays; it was finally ordered to a 
third reading by a vote of 14 to 11, Imt when the vote was 
taken on its passage it was defeated by a vote of 12 to 14. 
Its friends, however, obtained a re-consideration and it 
finally passed by a vote of 13 to 12. 

It is under this charter, procured under these difficulties, 
and which so narrowly escaped the insertion of a clause re- 
serving the right of repeal, that the first road was built 
which constitutes a part of the immense system of railroads 
operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Rail- 
road Company. 
A bill was subsequently introduced on the 3rd of February, 
to incorporate the Fond du Lac and Beaver Dam Rail- 
road Company, wdiich passed both houses without opposi- 
tion and without division. 

James F. Chapman, who by an act approved January 31st, 
184G, was appointed commissioner to superintend the work 
of cutting a canal from the main channel of the Mississippi 
River to the Grant River at Potosi, made his report, which 
was presented in the House of Representatives January 
15, 1847. 

The net proceeds of the sales of a section of land, includ- 
ing the village of Potosi, had been appropiated for that pur- 
pose, which, according to the report of the Receiver, 
amounted to $2,725. 

The commissioner reported that the first work performed 
was the clearing and grubbing of the line of the canal, 
w^hich was done under contract let to the lowest bidder, for 
the sum of $688.20. That the estimate of the engineer of 
the amount of excavation to dig the canal to the depth of 
six feet below the average surface and fifty feet wide at a 
slope of li feet to one foot perpendicular, was 31,027 cubic 
yards, and to have made it one hundred feet wide, the ex- 
cavation would be double that amount. To dig the canal 
four feet deep and fifty feet wide at the same slope the ex- 
cavation Avould be 17,315 yards. 

The citizens of Potosi at a public meeting requested the 
commissioner to limit the excavation to fifty feet in width 



538 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

and to make it as deep as the funds would admit of. In ac- 
cordance with that request and in pursuance of his own 
■views he determined to adopt that width, which was ren- 
dered necessary by the small amount of funds, which it was 
not probable after paying contingent expenses, would ex- 
ceed $1,500 or $1,600. He accordingly let a contract to the 
lowest bidder for the excavation of 14,000 cubic yards at 
twelve cents per yard, which he estimated would complete 
the work to a depth of four feet below the average surface, 
except the four sections of fifty-five yards each (horizontal) 
nearest the Grant River. He reported that the contractor 
had completed and been paid for about 11,000 yards, and 
that the other 3,000 yards would be completed by the first of 
April. 

The Legislative Assembly adopted a joint resolution rat- 
ifying and approving the acts and proceedings of the com- 
missioner as detailed in his report, and authorizing him to 
proceed in the expenditure of the funds which were or 
might be applicable to the work upon the plan adopted by 
him. 

A memorial to Congress was also adopted asking for an 
additional appropriation of lands to complete the v/ork, and 
the town of Potosi was authorized to borrow $5,000 for the 
same purpose. 

An act was passed authorizing Eliphalet S. Miner and 
Henry Clinton to improve the navigation of the Grand Rap- 
ids in the Wisconsin River, by the erection of four dams at 
different points specified in the act, with sufficient " slides " in 
the same, and to collect toll for the passage of rafts of lum- 
ber or timber, flat-boats, scows or any other water craft over 
and through said dams and slides. 

A memorial was passed asking Congress to make ap- 
propriation for the improvement of the obstruction to the 
navigation of the Mississippi River, known as the Des 
Moines Rapids, near the southern boundary of Iowa, and 
the Rock River Rapids, about one hundred and fifty miles 
above. 

A number of laws were passed authorizing the erection 
and maintenance of dams across navigable rivers. 

One by Lyman E. Boomer, John Richards and Daniel 
W. Kellogg, across Rock River, on sections 8 and 9, in 
town 8, of range 15 east. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 539 

Another by William Jones, across Sugar River, on sec- 
tion 15, town 2, range 9 east. 

Four on the Milwaukee River; one by Michael Bkatt, on 
section 34, town 12, range 21; one by Phineas M. Johnson, on 
northeast quarter of section 24, town 10, range 21 east; one 
on the southeast quarter of the same section by the rightful 
owners of it, and one by Benjamin H. Mooers, on section 
25, town 10, range 21 east. 

Harvey Jones, Loyal H. Jones, Harrison Reed, 
Charles Doty and Curtis Reed were authorized to erect a 
dam on section 22, and specified parts of section 27, in 
town 20, range 17 east. 

Another by Samuel H. Farnsworth, with a boom, on 
Wolf River, on or between sections 24 and 25, in town 27 
north, range 15 east. 

And Samuel B, Ormsbee, across Sheboygan River, on 
section 28, town 15, range 23. 

Chester Ford, Lucas M. Miller, Edward Eastm^vn 
and five other citizens of the embryo city of Oshkosh, 
were incorporated by the name of "The Fox River Bridge 
Company," with an authorized capital of $3,000 and poweit 
to construct a bridge across Fox River at Miller's Ferry, 
and to take so much land on the southern bank of said 
river as might be necessary to rest the said bridge on 
and also to collect tolls for passing the same. 

The trustees of the village of Racine were given power b^* 
a special law to levy a special tax of $5,000, each year dur- 
ing the two years of 1847 and 1848, for the purpose of con- 
tinuing the construction of a harbor at that place. 

A corporation was created consisting of fifteen of the 
leading citizens of Green Bay and the valley of the Fox 
and Wisconsin Rivers, with a capital of $100,000 and 
authority to increase it to $200,000, called the "Mississippi 
and Lake Erie Navigation Company." The object of the 
company appears to ha^e been the — 

• "Transport in{? freight and passengers to and from the Mississippi River and Buffalo by 
" way of the Wisconsin Rivers and the lakes, and to and from the intermediate points on 
" said rivers and lakes," — 

Although this object or the power to affect it is nowhere 
given in the act, except negatively in a proviso, designed to 
prevent the exercise of banking powers or privileges. 



540 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Legislation in relation to the creation of new counties, 
the organization of those already created, and the establish- 
ment or change of county seats, is always a matter of in- 
terest to those affected by it. There was no lack of such 
interest at this session. 

In pursuance of an act passed at the last session, so much 
of Milwaukee county, as lies west of range twenty-one, had, 
by a large majority of the votes of those authorized to vote 
on the question, been erected, established and organized 
into a new county called Waukesha. 

To meet the necessities of this change, an act was passed 
providing for the removal of suits from the district court 
of Milwaukee county to that of Waukesha county, with the 
proper details. It also contained a ratification of the acts 
of the register of deeds. 

In relation to the Washington county seat, an act was 
passed that for the term of five years it should be estab- 
lished at the village of Washington, on section 28, town 11, 
range 32 east. It was introduced by Mr. Hobart, went 
through all the stages of legislation in the House, where it 
passed without opposition or division. But in the Council it 
was opposed by Mr. Phelps, of whose district the county 
was a part, and finally passed by a vote of 6 to 4, three 
members being absent. 

The result of the vote in Iowa county, upon the law for a 
division of the county, being a majority of 233 in favor of 
the law, imposed upon the Legislative Assembly the duty 
of providing for the full organization of both the counties. 
An act was passed for this purpose. It declared what 
towns should constitute the county of La Fayette, and that 
from and after the 1st day of May next, said county should 
be fully organized for all judicial and county purposes. It 
also provided for the removal of suits and causes from Iowa 
to La Fayette county, and for the transfer of records from 
the office of the register of deeds. It provided that the 
persons holding county offices should continue to hold the 
same offices for the counties in which they respectively re- 
sided, and that the vacancies thereby created in the other 
county should be filled at a special election to be held on 
the first Tuesday of April, whose terms were to commence 
May 1st. 

That the county commissioners should provide rooms for 
holding courts at such place as they might deem most con- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 541 

venient, which should be the court house of said county for 
the time being. Courts were to be held on the first Monday 
of September and the third Monday of April. 

The debts and liabilities of the old county, as they ex- 
isted on the 1st day of May, as well as the proceeds of the 
property and effects, were to be divided in the proportions 
of the population of each county, to be ascertained by a 
special census, provided for in the law. 

Iowa, La Fa3^ette and Richland counties were to continue 
to constitute one election district, entitled to one member of 
the Council and three members of the House. 

Another act provided that on the first Tuesday of April 
the voters of Iowa county should vote by ballot for some 
place for the county seat of that county, and that such 
place as should be designated by a majority of the votes so 
given, should be and remain the county seat until other- 
wise provided by the people of the county, and that the 
county seat should be located at Mineral Point until other- 
wise provided for. 

Acts were passed for the organization of Winnebago 
county, which had been attached to Fond du Lac county, 
and of St. Croix county, which had been attached to Craw- 
ford county. 

The law of the previous session, creating Columbia county 
from the southern part of Portage, contemplated that the 
voters of the new county should select, by their votes, some 
place for its county seat. The votes were divided between 
Columbus, Wyocena, Dekorra and Winnol)ago Portage and 
some scattering points; so that no place received a ma- 
jority. 

Numerous petitions were sent to the Legislature, at this 
session, in relation to the matter. The result was the 
passage of a law which purported to legalize the elections 
held in the months of April and September 1846, in that 
county and the acts of all ofiicers elected at such elections. 
It located the county seat, temporarily, at Wyocena, on the 
northeast i of section 21, town 12, range 10 east, and pro- 
vided that an election for the site of the county seat should 
be held at every general annual election, until some place 
received a majority of the votes, and that in the meantime, 
the county seat should remain at Wyocena. Provision was 
also made for the transfer of suits and records, and for 



542 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

other details requisite for the organization of the county, 
its courts and oflScers. 

Many towns were divided and new towns organized. 
The names given to the new towns were as follows: In 
Brown county, Lawrence. In Rock county, Porter and 
Avon. In Fond du Lac county, Alto, Auhurn, Forest, 
Taychedah and Seven Mile Creek. In Dane county, 
Christiana, Cottage Grove, Oregon, Montrose, Greenfield, 
Rome, Springfield, Verona, Windsor, Clarkson and Cross 
Plains. In Washington county, Korth Bend, Fredonia and 
Clarence. In Jefferson county, Hebron and Waterloo. In 
Winnebago county, Butte des Morts, Neenah, Winnebago, 
Brighton and Rushford. In Racine county, Norway. The 
name of Bark River, in Jefferson county, was changed to 
Cold Spring. Lime, in Fond du Lac county, was changed 
to Oakfield. Wright, in Washington county, was changed 
to Hartford. Richmond, in Iowa county, to Linden; and 
Prairieville, in Waukesha county, to Waukesha. 

The villages of Southport and Fond du Lac were incor- 
porated. The name of the incorporated village of Prairie- 
ville was changed to Waukesha. The act of 1845 to 
incorporate the village of Beloit was repealed. The city of 
Milwaukee was authorized to borrow $15,000 for the pur- 
chase of suitable sites for school-houses and for their con- 
struction. And the city charter was amended by taking 
from the common council the power of appointment of 
treasurer, attorney, marshal, constables, assessors and street 
inspectors and making those officers elective. 

Commissioners were appointed to la}' out the following 
territorial roads: 

From Lake Mills, in Jefferson county, to Lowell, in Dodge 
county. 

From Indian Ford in town of Fulton, Rock county, to 
Madison, Dane county. 

From the northwest corner of Jefferson county, south 
on or near the county line. 

From the point where the territorial road crosses the 
range line between range 17 and 18, via Oconomowoc and 
the bridge across Rock river to a point in the road from 
Watertown to Waupun. 

From Watertown, in Jefferson county, via Palmyra, to 
Delavan, in Walworth county. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 543 

From Columbus, in Columbia county, to Sauk village, in 
Sauk county. 

From Lake Puckaway, via Wyocena, to Madison, in Dane 
county. 

From Waterford, in Racine county, via Hall & Pratt's 
tavern, in town of Paris, to Southport, in Racine county. 

From Janesville in Rock county, via Indian Ford, to Fort 
Winnebago in Columbia county. 

From " Tibbitts " in Walworth county on the territorial 
road from Milwaukee to Janesville, via Indian Ford, to the 
Territorial road from Milwaukee to Mineral Point. 

From Dodgeville, via Hickox's Mill and William Rug- 
GLEs', to the Territorial road from Madison to Helena. 

From the outlet of Lake Winnebago to the foot of Grand 
Kaukalin on the east side of the Fox River. 

From the section line between sections twenty-one and 
twenty-eight, town ten, range fifteen in Dodge county; 
thence east on section lines as near as possible to the road 
leading from Hustisford to Milwaukee. 

From the house of Erastus G. Snell in Jefferson county 
to Clinton in Dane county. 

From Halls' saw-mill on Koshkonong Creek, Jefferson 
county, to Clinton, Dane county. 

From Janesville, via Stone's Bridge, Catfish Mills and 
Dunkirk, to Madison, Dane county. 

From Grafton, Washington county, to Fond du Lac. 

From Grafton, via Cedarburg, to Prairieville. 

From Sauk Washington, Washington county, via Salis- 
bury's Mills, to Beaver Dam in Dodge county. 

From Beaver Dam, Dodge county, to Dekorra, Columbia 
county. 

From Columbus in Columbia county to Green Lake in 
Marquette county. 

From Manitowoc to Winnebago Rapids in Winnebago 
county. 

From Neenah in Winnebago county to the Rapid De- 
croche in Brown county. 

From Hacey's Mills in Dodge county to Columbus in Co- 
lumbia county. 

A memorial to Congress was adopted, asking for a United 
States road from Prairie du Chien to La'Point or some 
other place on Lake Superior, in which it was stated that 



544 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

" Said road will probably run on a ridge of beautiful and fertile prairie, with numerous 
tracts of valuable timber interspersed." 

An act was passed incorporating twenty of the most 
prominent business men of the city of Milwaukee into " a 
body politic and corporate," by the name of the ''' Merchants' 
Mutual Insurance Company." 

A special act was passed by which the male members of 
full age belonging to any Protestant Episcopal Church 
were authorized to become an incorporated body, and elect 
wardens and vestrymen, and take and hold, by purchase, 
gift or devise, real estate or other property, and to sell and 
dispose of or lease the same; but the annual income of the 
real estate, excepting the site of the church, parsonage and 
school house, should not exceed five thousand dollars. 

By another portion of the same act, it was made lawful 
for the male members of full age of any other church, con- 
gregation or religious society to elect trustees, who and 
their successors should be a body corporate and politic, with 
all the powers, immunities and privileges conferred by the 
same act upon Protestant Episcopal Churches. 

Five trustees named in another act, and their associates, 
were created a corporation by the name of "The First Bap- 
tist Society in the Town of Prairie ville," with the usual 
powers of such corporations, including that of taking, hold- 
ing, selling or disposing of real and personal estate, the in- 
come of which should not exceed one thousand dollars. 

By another act, four persons named therein and their as- 
sociates and successors were created a corporation by the 
name of • the "Lutheran Evangelical Trinity Church and 
Society of the Town of Mequon" (Washington county). 

By another act, five persons named therein and their as- 
sociates were created a corporation by the name of the 
"United Lutheran and Reformed Church of Milwaukee." 
Similar corporate powers were conferred upon these Luth- 
eran churches, as upon the other churches which were 
incorporated. 

The late Bishop Kemper and six other persons named in 
an act for that purpose, trustees and their associates, with 
such persons as might thereafter be associated with them, 
were 

"Created a body politic and corporate with perpetual succession by the name of 
'Nashotah House,' of the Nashotah Lakes, in the town of Summit, Waukesha County, for 
the purpose of erecting, maintaining and conducting a college of learning and piety." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 545 

All the usual and necessary corporate powers were con- 
ferred by the act. 

The first act of the session was one to incorporate "The 
Board of Trustees of Lawrence Institute of Wisconsin;" the 
object oi; which was declared to be 

"Establishing, maintaining and conducting the institution of learning for the education 
of youth generally." 

Ail the ordinary and necessary corporate powers were 
given, with the proviso that the annual income of their es- 
tate should not exceed ten thousand dollars. 

The act provided that the institute should — 

"Be located on Fox River, between Little Kaukalau and the foot of Winnebago Lake, at 
" such place as the trustees should select." 

The board of trustees were given — 

"Authority to appoint all officers, teachers and agents of the institution, except the 
" President, who shall be elected by ballot by the annual conference of the Methodist Epis- 
"copal Church in Wisconsin." 

The bill for this act was introduced in the Council and 
passed both houses without opposition or division, but an 
attendant and auxiliar}^ measure, being a "Memorial to 
Congress asking a grant of land to the Lawrence Institute," 
introduced into the Council at the same time, although it 
passed the Council without objection, met with opposition 
in the House which finally proved fatal. It was ordered to 
a third reading in the first instance without a division, but 
such opposition to it was afterwards developed that it was 
recommitted to the committee of the whole, and after being 
amended by inserting a provision that any lands granted 
should not be sold for a sum exceeding $1.25 per acre, it was 
again ordered to a third reading by a close vote of 13 to 11. 
But when the question came upon its passage, those 
opposed to it succeeded in having it postponed from time to 
time until the last day of the session, when it was laid on 
the table without a division. 

Separate acts were passed to incorporate — 

" The Stockholders of the Green County Seminary," at 
Monroe; 

" The Watertown Seminary," at the village of Water- 
town ; 

" The Trustees of the Sheboj^gan Academy," at the village 
of Sheboygan; 

" The Trustees of the Beaver Dam Academy," at the vil- 
lage of Beaver Dam; and 
35 



546 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

" The Trustees of the Prairie du Sac Academy," at the 
village of Prairie du Sac, in Sauk county. 

Another act was passed to incorporate the ''Beloit 
Mechanics' Library Association." 

The question of the passage of what are called sumptuary 
laws occupied the attention of this Legislature, and the re- 
sult was the passage of a "local option" law, by which the 
electors of the several municipalities were annually to vote 
^•for license" or "against license," and if a majority of the 
votes cast in any municipality were "against license,"; then 
no license could be granted therein for the year next 
ensuing. 

The report of Nathaniel F. Hyer, who was appointed at 
the previous session of the Legislative Assembly to select 
the unselected portion of the University lands, was pre- 
sented. It appeared that of the seventy-two sections, 
amounting to 46,080 acres, granted by Congress, there re- 
mained 18,580 acres to be selected, all of which, amounting 
to twenty-nine sections, were selected by Mr. Hyer, who 
made a tabular statement in his report of the particular 
sections selected by him. 

Five acts were passed purporting to dissolve the marriage 
contract between John Martin and his wife, Dorcas B. 
Martin; between Jesse A. Clark and Jemima M. Clark; 
between Phoeba Phillips of Dane county and Joab 
Phillips; between Caleb Croswell and his wife, E. Jane 
Croswell, of Walworth county, and between Samuel Hall 
and his wife, Sarah Hall. 

The name of Harriet Wells of Spring Prairie, Wal- 
worth county, was changed to Harriet Arms; and William 
Dick of Manchester, Calumet county, was to be thereafter 
known and recognized by the name of William Hamlin 
Dick. 

Provision was made by law for the setting off and ad- 
measurement of the dower of widows in the estates of their 
deceased husbands, under the jurisdiction of the probate 
courts, with appeal to the district courts. 

In a convention of both houses, held on the 9th of Febru- 
ary, an election was held by joint ballot for Territorial 
printer and for Superintendent of Territorial Property. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 547 

For printer, Horace A. Tenney received 20 votes, W. W. 
Wyman, 8, and Beriah Brown, 4. Mr. Tenxey was de- 
clared elected. 

For Superintendent of Territorial Property, J. Gillet 
Knapp received 35 votes and John Nelson, 3, and Mr. 
Knapp was declared elected. 

The claim of Daniel Baxter was again presented and 
referred to the committee on Territorial expenditures, which 
reported that they found "that in April, 1843, a committee 
appointed to settle with Mr. Baxter reported a balance of 
^1,372.14 due him, and that under a joint resolution of the 
last Legislature he had received 8800." The committee 
were of the opinion that the balance, with interest amount- 
ing to 8732.24 was justly his due, and reported a bill by which 
that sum was appropriated to him. 

This bill, with the report of the committee, was referred 
to a select committee of five. This committee reported that 
the joint resolution of 1846 " goes to show a final settlement 
of all claims between the said Baxter and the Territory," 
and " that his accepting the provisions of that resolution 
would preclude him from any further demand against the 
Territory." 

The report of the select committee was, on motion, 
*' adopted as the opinion of the House," by a vote of 20 to 4, 
and the bill was indefinitely postponed by a vote of 24 to 1. 

The select committee appointed to inquire into the expedi- 
ency of taking measures for building a penitentiar}^, made 
a report near the close of the session, which gives in detail 
many reasons why — 

" They deem it ei-sential to the interests of the State that ample provision should be 
made for the establishment of a secure and adequate Slate's prison at an early day." 

The report, however, only invited — 

"The attention of the Legislature and the people to the matter, in order that due prep- 
aration may be made at the next ensuing session, to adoot suitable measures for carry- 
ing the project into immediate effect." 

A facetious report was made by the chairman of the com- 
mittee on agriculture of the House, upon a petition referred 
to that committee, for the passage of a law to prohibit 
quackery in the science and practice of medicine, from 
which the following extract is made : 

"Of late years the regular practice of medicine, consisting of the general features of 
bleeding, purging, vomiting, and injections, cataplasms, blisters, poultices and leeching — 



548 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

handed down to us by our grandsires and respected grandmothers; rendered illustrious by 
the names of Hypocrates and Galen, and, in modern days, of Sangrado and Glyster, 
venerable from long usage — has been invaded by a tribe of interlopers, who, without 
license and without lancets, under the various names of homoeopathists, hydropathists, an- 
imal magnetizers, phreno-magnetizers, iu"ine doctors, and poudrette doctors, undertake to 
cure our diseases without any regular system, purging us chiefly of our substance, and 
bleeding our pockets more than our veins. 

" The committee would represent that in their opinion, the enactment of a law subject- 
in g such offenders to be operated on by their own systems, and to swallow their own 
medicines, would materially, if not effectually, remedy the evil." 

This report drew out a minority report, the author of 
which, while regarding quackery as an evil of great and in- 
creasing magnitude, expressed the opinion that any law 
aimed at its suppression should include all species of 
quackery, — the quack doctor, the quack lawyer, the quack 
politician, the quack mechanic, the quack dentist and the 
quack linguist. 

No further action upon the petition seemed to be thought 
necessary. 

In pursuance of an act of Congress passed July 11, 1816, 
and of the proclamation of the President the 20th of Novem- 
ber, 1846, all the lands in the Wisconsin land district which 
had been theretofore reserved from sale as containing valu- 
able lead mines, were offered at public sale at the land 
office at Mineral Point, on the 24th day of May, 1847. 

The proclamation stated that — 

"All of such lands as contain a mine or mines of lead ore actually discovered and 
being worked, will be sold in such legal subdivisions as will include such mine or mines, 
at not less than two dollars and fifty cents per acre." 

The act of Congress authorizing the sale of these lands 
required the President, in giving notice of the time and 
place of sale, to give with it — 

"A brief description of the mineral regions, showing the number and localities of the 
different mines now known, the probability of discovering others, etc." 

In pursuance of this requirement the following "descrip- 
tion" was appended to and formed part of the proclama- 
tion — 

"The lands embraced by the above prcclamation of the President of the United States, 
contain many of the most valuable lead mines actually opened and worked, which have yet 
been discovered; and from indication on the surf ace and from experiments made in dig- 
ging it is believed that many others equally valuable exist, and may be explored at a trifhng 
expense. 

From the great number of these mines it would be impracticable to give an adequate 
idea of their character and location, without extending this notice beyond proper bounds. 
It is sufficient to state that they are situated in the section of country bounded on the 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 549 

south by the Illinois State line, on the west by the Mississippi River, on the north by a line 
drawn nearly parallel to the south side of the Wisconsin River, at the average distance of 
ten or twelve miles therefrom, and on the east by a meridian line passing through the 
source of Sugar Creek, the whole district covering a surface equal to about sixty full 
townships. All necessary facilities for transporting the products to a market are afforded 
by the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, and their tributaries, the Blue, Grant, Platte, 
Pekatonica and other rivers with which the district is intersected. 

The above district was explored by Dr. Owen, the geologist of the State of Indiana, under 
instructions from the Treasury Department, and in compliance with a resolution of the 
House of Representatives, passed the 6th of February, 1839. The able report of this gen- 
tleman, published in 1811, with the charts and illustrations (Senate Document, 407, 1st ses- 
sion, 28th Congress), contains precise information as to the location of each mine and shows 
that in 1S39 the lead mines in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, though only partially worked, 
produced upwards of thirty millions poimds of lead, of which those in Wisconsin, it 
appears, yielded the largest proportion; and farther, that the whole district, if properly 
mined, would j-ield on^ hundred and fifty millions pounds per annum. 

Particular lists of sections and parts of sections to be offered at said sale, have beeu 
furnished to the register and receiver at Mineral Point, together with maps en which the 
location of each tract is designated, all of which will be subject to the examination of 
those wishing to purchase." 

Many of the mining "claims " had been lield by the min- 
ers nearly twenty years, and in numerous instances were in 
small tracts, often not exceeding ten acres, and frequently 
less, and in many cases bounded by irregular lines, and 
without regard to their conformity with the lines of the 
legal subdivisions of the sections. So that the purchaser of 
the smallest legal subdivision (40 acres) would almost invar- 
iably purchase the " claim " of some one else. 

In this condition of things the claimants of lots in each of 
the different mining communities, organized themselves 
into mining claim associations, with a president, secretary, 
treasurer, surveyor and board of arbitrators. All claims 
within the jurisdiction of the association were required to 
be filed with the secretary and to be surveyed by the sur- 
veyor, wlien necessary for their proper and definite desig- 
nation. In the case of conflict of claims the dispute was 
settled by the board of arbitrators, from whose determina- 
tion there was no appeal. 

Whenever there was more than one " claim " upon any 
legal subdivision, the different claimants paid to the treas- 
urer such proportion of $100 (the cost of forty acres at $3.50 
per acre) as the number of acres in his claim bore to forty 
acres, and some person was then selected to buy the entire 
legal subdivision at the sale and to hold it in trust for the 
different claimants, to whom he made deeds conforming to 
the claims awarded to them respectively. 



560 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

At the time appointed for the sale, an army of claimants 
of mineral lots were in attendance, but the utmost order 
prevailed and no disposition was manifested by any one to 
bid against the person selected by the claimants to purchase 
the land for their use and his bid of the minimum price of 
$2.50 per acre was in every case accepted, although many of 
the lands were well known to be worth forty times that 
sum. Such was the disposition to respect the well earned 
rights of miners to their mineral lots, that the most greedy 
speculator was unwilling to incur the detestation with 
which he would have been visited by the whole community, 
if he had attempted to bid upon a tract containing any 
miner's lot, in opposition to the appointed bidder. 

The effect of the sale of these " mineral lands," was that 
every man in the '•'mineral regions" obtained a secure title 
to his mineral lot. There was no more " jumping" of claims 
and no further conflicts in relation to them, and every one 
was greatly benefited by this condition of affairs except the 
lawyers, of whom it had become a proverb that whenever a 
new lead was struck half of it belonged to the lawyers, as 
there was generally more or less dispute among conflicting 
claimants. But now, since the land sales had quieted titles, 
their occupation was gone. 

The most important event of the year 1847, and the one 
that excited the greatest interest among the people and 
engendered the greatest amount of contention, attended 
by no small degree of acrimonious feeling, was the sub- 
mission to a vote, on the first Tuesday of April, of the con- 
stitution adopted on the 16th of December, 1846, for ratifi- 
cation or rejection, by all persons who should then have the 
qualifications of electors to the convention which framed 
the constitution. 

Opposition to the adoption of the constitution by the 
electors was exhibited before its adoption by the convention. 
The resignation of one of its leading and ablest members 
more than a week before the adjournment of the conven- 
tion, and the reasons for it, was generally and properly re- 
garded as a declaration of war upon the ratification of the 
instrument, in the framing of which he had so largely par- 
ticipated. 

The article " on Banks and Banking" was acknowledged 
by the committee which reported the original article on that 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 551 

subject, and especially by its eminent chairman, the late 
Chief Justice Ryan, to be a new departure in constitutional 
law, and that it was so, was urged as an argument in its 
favor. 

At this time (1846-7) the country was overrun with a de- 
preciated currency, and the channels of circulation were 
flooded with " wild-cat" bank notes, and the article on banks 
and banking was intended as a remedy for the evil and a 
security against its recurrence. It was given at length in 
the last chapter. 

It strictly prohibited banking of every description, whether 
of issues, deposits, discounts or exchange hij corporations. 
And although the Legislature could confer no bank- 
ing power or privilege whatever, upon any person or per- 
sons, and although it was declared not to be lawful for 
any person or persons to issue any evidence of debt what- 
ever, intended to circulate as money; yet all the other 
branches of banking — discounts, deposits and exchange — 
were left entirely free and open to private enterprise. 

it was this prohibition of the power to issue, in other words 
to manufacture currency, that excited the opposition to the 
constitution of a certain class, especially in Milwaukee, that 
could not tolerate a constitutional law which would deprive 
them of the power of making paper money by which they 
alone would reap all the benefit, while the mass of the 
people would be subjected to all the hazard of loss in the 
event of the inability or unwillingness of those who issued 
it to redeem it. 

This class were earnest, determined, and to some extent 
systematic and organized in their opposition. The great 
mass of the Whig part}*, by the teachings of their party, 
became the ready and willing supporters of the ideas upon 
which this opposition was founded, and allies of those most 
interested in their promulgation. This reason for opposing 
the adoption of the constitution w£is readily supplemented 
by other objections to it which were presented; the most 
prominent of which were the elective judiciary, the rights 
of married women, exemptions, too numerous a Legislature 
an<] that it legislated too much. 

A number of able and influential leading Democrats were 
found ready and willing to aid these opponents of the con- 
stitution, so many that a sufficient number of the rank and 
file, following their lead, united with the nearly solid body of 



552 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

the Whig voters, were able to effect its rejection by a large 
majority. 

Prominent among these leading Democrats were Messrs. 
Strong, Lovell, Wells and Holmes — members of the 
Council — and others whose personal iniluence was not 
augmented by official position. Historical justice, also, re- 
quires the statement that among the leading opponents in 
the Whig party, the late Chief Justice Whiton, Messrs. 
John H. Tweedy, Jonathan E. Arnold, Wm. S. Hamilton 
and Alexander L. Collins were the most prominent, active 
and influential, while their successful efforts were seconded 
by many others, who were either less prominent or whose 
names are not now remembered. 

It would swell these pages beyond all justification to re- 
produce the arguments and reasons presented for and 
against the adoption of the constitution. It is, however, 
worthy of remark that the Democrats who opposed it, made 
their attacks chiefly upon the article upon the rights of 
married women and exemption, passing lightly over the 
bank article, while with the Whig leaders the chief point of 
attack was the restrictions upon banking and bank circu- 
lation. 

Mr. Strong, in his very able speech in the Council, dealt 
heavy blows at other parts of the constitution, but in speak- 
ing of the Gth section of the bank article, said: 

"I voted for that section because I thought it abstractly right then aud think so still, all 
the while, however, doubting the expediency of placing it in the constitution." 

He said nothing against the prohibitions of banking. 

On the other hand, Mr. Collins, the recognized Whig 
leader in the Council, in commenting upon the speech of 
Mr. Strong, said: 

"I must differ with him in his commsuts upon that article of the constitution, providing 
for the exemption of forty acres of land, and in some cases its equivalent. He opposes the 
article and so do I. He opposes the principles of the article, but I do not. The article is 
defective in form and effect, and not only that, it is not wide enough, broad enough or long 
enough. Every man should be protected in his homestead, be the same more or less. 

The article in the constitution "on the rights of married 
women and on exemption from forced sale," which was the 
subject of the vigorous attacks of the opponents of the con- 
stitution was the 11th, and was in the words given in the 
last chapter. 

The objection to the numerousness of the Legislature was 
founded upon the provision that the number of the House 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 553 

of Representatives should never be less than 60 nor greater 
than 120, and that of the Senate not greater than one third 
nor less than one fourth of the number of the members of 
the House, while the number fixed until there was a new 
apportionment, was 79 members of the House and 21 mem- 
bers of the Senate. 

As showing the character of the objections to the consti- 
tution, but one other will be mentioned, which is that the 
bill of riglits contained this provision — 

"No person shall be rendered incompetent to give evidence in any court of law or equity 
in consequence of his opinioiis on the subject of relij^ion." 

One objection which was strenuously and with some effect 
urged, is not especially alluded to, nor the arguments in sup- 
port of it, viz.: an elective judiciary, for the reason that it 
was adopted as a part of the second constitution, and 
almost universally acquiesced in. 

The objections to the constitution which were so earnestly 
and successfully urged in numerous public speeches by its 
able opponents, and by a vigorous and sometimes unscru- 
pulous press, were met and answered by a large array of 
able advocates, with powerful and well presented argu- 
ments. 

Among the leading advocates of the adoption of the con- 
stitution, whose names are now recalled, were Georgk B. 
Smith, David Noggle, A. Hyatt Smith, Charles M. Baker, 
Hiram Barber, Saml. W. Beall, James Duane Doty, John 
Y. Smith, Wm. H. Clark, Warren Chase, Lorenzo 
Bevans, William R. Smith, Ninian E. Whitesides, and 
towering above all others in the magnetism of his zeal and 
the power of his eloquence, Edward G. Ryan. 

It was not denied that the articles (10) "on Banks and 
Ban'cing," and (14) "on the rights of married women and on 
exemptions from forced sale," were experimental. But it 
was claimed that they were experiments in the direction of 
progress, designed and well calculated by all the security 
which constitutional law could afford, to protect the masses 
of the people against the grinding avarice of the few, who 
are ever ready to avail themselves of the advantages to be 
derived from fluctuating legislation. 

It was argued by them that while it was true beyond suc- 
cessful contradiction that a large majority of the people 
were opposed to all banks of issue, and to conferring the 



554 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

power of making paper money upon any persons or corpo- 
rations; they ought, while they could, to render themselves 
secure by a constitutional provision, against the danger that 
this power might, in the future by undue influence, 
which those who desired the privilege of exercising it, 
understood so well how to use; be conferred upon soulless 
corporations, who by its exercise would flood the country 
with worthless and irredeemable bank notes. 

In support of the sixth section, which was designed grad- 
ually to prevent the circulation of small bank bills and to 
substitute for them a currency of coin; the experience of 
the inhabitants of the lead-mine region for the three or four 
years preceding, where gold and silver coin had formed the 
exclusively currency in circulation among the people, was 
referred to as an unanswerable argument in support of this 
section. 

It was argued that any commodity, for which there was 
a demand — wheat for instance, which was then the princi- 
pal commodity in the eastern part of the State — would com- 
mand the best kind of currency in existence^ if the sellers 
chose to demand it, and that the adoption of the sixth sec- 
tion would be the means of inducing the farmers to demand 
coin in exchange for their wheat, and that a result would 
be witnessed corresponding with that in the lead mines, by 
which the buyers of lead had for several years been com- 
pelled to comply with the demand for coin which had been 
so imperatively made by the miners. But so long as wheat 
growers were content to accept an inferior currency, they 
would not be able to obtain a currency of coin. 

It was denied that there was any force in the objection 
that the number of members in the Legislature was too 
large. That the objection involved a mere difference of 
opinion and the subject admitted of as many different 
opinions as there were different numbers between a very 
high and a very low number. That the convention had 
adopted a medium number. That the first Legislature 
would consist of only seventy-nine members of the House 
and twenty-one in the Senate, and could never be increased 
except by the Legislature itself. 

The objection to that section of the tenth article which 
secured to a married woman as her " separate property," 
whatever was " owned by her at the time of her marriage," 
as well as " that acquired by her after marriage, by gift. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 555 

devise, descent or otherwise than from her husband/' was. 
claimed to have been met by the reading of the article it- 
self. It was said that tlie objections to the section were 
founded on a perversion of its meaning. That it in truth 
conferred upon a woman no rights, so far as related to real 
property, which were not already recognized by existing 
laws — indeed by the common law of England — and that 
there was no good reason why her rights to personal prop- 
erty, derived in a similar manner, should not have the same 
recognition. 

It was further answered that the section contained only a 
general declaration which would be entirely without prac- 
tical effect, until legislation should intervene " for carrying 
out the provisions of this section," and that it was to be 
supposed that when the Legislature should "define the 
rights of the wife," it would not leave the rights of the hus- 
band undefined. 

The objection to that section of the fourteenth article, 
which provided that " forty acres of land," or its equivalent, 
as expressed in the section already quoted, should " not be 
subject to forced sale on execution for any debt or debts 
growing out of or founded upon contract express or implied, 
made after the adoption of this constitution," was forcibly 
met %vith the statement that it was addressed to the cupid- 
it}^ of the heartless creditor, and that it ignored the humane 
appeals of the honest debtor whose only crime was his mis- 
fortune and his poverty, in which his unfortunate family 
were sufferers in common with himself. 

Besides answering the objections to the constitution made 
by its opponents, its advocates pointed out what they re- 
garded as its excellencies. 

It was said by one : 

" The executive powers conferred are extremely limited. The Governor has no power 
of appointment whatever. Every officer is to be elected. And with the exception of the 
limited veto power, when we say that the Governor may submit an annual messaj;e to the 
Legislature and issue a proclamation for fast and thanksgiving, we have nearly com- 
pleted the enumeration of his powers." 

Some new provisions in the judiciary article were: 
Tribunals of conciliation. 

Taxes in civil suits applicable to the salaries of the judges. 
Testimony in equity cases to be taken as in cases at law. 
Any suitor might be his own attorr.ey. 



55G HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Some new provisions in the legislative article were : 
That the ayes and noes should be taken on the final pas- 
sage of all bills; 
A viva voce vote in all elections by the Legislature; 
No private or local bill to embrace more than one subject; 
Prohibiting extra compensation to officers and others; 
Never authorize any lottery; 
Provision for suits against the State, to be made by law. 

The provisions of the constitution in relation to internal 
improvements, taxation, and the public debt, were regarded 
by its advocates as presenting strong reasons for its adop- 
tion, and it was asked : 

" With our State disencumbered of all banks, and all danger of their bUghting influ- 
ence entirely I'emoved, with no possibility that her energies can be crippled with the in- 
cubus of a State debt, the consiriiction of works of internal improvement left entirely free 
to private enterprise, may we not soon hope to sees Wisconsin occupy an eminence that 
may be justly envied by all her western sisters;'" 

Many other reasons for the adoption of the constitution 
were urged by its advocates. 

The contest was the most able, the most energetic, and the 
most exciting that ever occupied the attention of the people 
and in many respects its like has not been seen in any sub- 
sequent controversy in the State, and the feelings of per- 
sonal antagonism between members of the dominant 
Democratic party, who were arrayed against each other, 
were such that their effects were not easily nor for a long- 
time eradicated. 

The advocates of the constitution predicted that if those 
of its features which were most antagonized should be then 
defeated, they would ultimately be adopted either in a new 
constitution or by legislative enactment, and their anticipa- 
tions have been completely verified in every particular ex- 
cept the sixth section of the bank article, which provided tor 
the suppression of the circulation of small bank notes. 

The following is the official result of the vote by counties: 



Counties. 


For. 


AG.AINST. 


Brown . ••• • 


235 


120 


Calumet no returns received 




Orawford • ..-■■ 


49 

6G 

592 


150 




3M 


Dane 


962 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 184'; 



557 



Counties. 



Dodge 

Fond du Lac 
Grant 



Green 



Iowa, La'Fayette and Richland. 

Jefferson 

LaTointe — no returns received 

Manitowoc 

Marquette 

Milwaukee 



Portage 
Kacine . . 



Kock. 



Sauk 

Sheboj-gan 

St. Croix 

Walworth 

Washington 

Waukesha 

Winnebago 

Totals 

Majority against the constitution 



FoH. Against. 



803 
C24 
533 
311 
1,444 
780 



OS 
1S4 

1,678 
1C4 

1,.363 
987 
111 
ICO 
65 
9S4 

1,478 

1,246 
137 



14,119 



97,5 
627 

1,893 

cor 

1,417 
1,233 



45 

189 
1,900 

209 
2.474 
1,977 

1.57 

374 

61 

2,027 

353 
1,823 

203 
20,2:51 
fi,112' 



The convention of the Democratic party to nominate a 
candidate for delegate to Congress was held at Madison on 
the 21st of July. It was very fully attended, there heing 
78 delegates in attendance, representing every portion of 
the Territory. 

The candidates were Morgan L. Martin, Hiram Barber 
and Moses M. Strong. The preferences of the delegates 
were nearly equally divided between the three. There were 
twelve ballots on the first day, upon the last of which the 
votes were equally divided between the three candidates, 
each having received twenty-six. The next day tiiere were 
six ballots, on the last of which Mr. Strong was nominated, 
having received 45 of the 78 votes, the accession to his vote 
coming from those who had voted for Mr. Barber. 

This nomination was immediately denounced as being the 
work of the supporters of the defeated constitution, and it 
became at once apparent that the effort would be made to 



558 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

carry the war over the defeated constitution into the elec- 
tion of delegate in Congress. 

A leading paper in Racine County which had opposed the 
constitution, in its first issue after the nomination was 
known, contained a highly sensational, and not very candid 
article, from which the following extracts are taken: 

"It is probably a fact that Mr. Strong has commended himself to the favorable 
notice of many of the leaders of his party by his reckless and unscrupulous coxu'se as a 
partisan. * * * It is well known that of all the advocates of the late 

coHStitution there was no one so open-mouthed and violent in its support as he. This serv- 
ice undoubtedly had great weight with the convention in his favor, for, as far as we have 
been able to ascertain, that convention was composed exclusively of the friends of the 
constitution; those who opposed the adoption of that instrument having been carefully 
excluded from all participation in the deliberations of that body. And it is au undeniable 
fact, that no opponent of the constitution received a single vote in that convention, al- 
though in that section or branch of the Democratic party are to be found many possessing 
superior talent and undoubted integrity. * * * They (the members of 

the convention) asked themselves, who proclaimed himself the most violent and uncom- 
promising in support of our constitution? This question would bo answered at once — 
Moses M. Strong!" 

One week after the Democratic convention — on the 28th 
of July — the Territorial convention of the delegates of the 
Whig party was held. It was almost as numerously at- 
tended as the Democratic convention. After agreeing to 
the report of the committee on credentials and permanent 
organization, an informal ballot was had for a candidate for 
delegate to Congress, which resulted as follows : 

John H. Tweedy 3S 

E. V. Whiton 10 

A. L. Collins 10 

M. M. Jackson 10 

John H. Rountree 1 

Mr. Jackson, who had been elected president of the con- 
vention, withdrew his name as a candidate, when a formal 
ballot was taken, which resulted in 63 votes for John H. 
Tweedy and 7 for A. L. Collins, when the nomination was 
made unanimous. 

The Abolition party, in rather an informal manner, had 
nominated Mr. Charles Durkee as their candidate for 
delegate. 

The election was on the 6th day of September, and the 
following is an official statement of the votes, by counties, 
as canvassed: 



TERRITORY OF WISCO>:SIN IN 1847. 



559 



Brown 

Calumet .. 

Columbia 

Crawford 

Dane 

Dodge 

Fond du Lac 

Grant 

Green 

Iowa and Richland . 

La'Fayette 

La'Pointe 

Jefferson 

Manitowoc 

Marquette.... 

Milwaukee 

Portage 

Racine 

Rock 

Sauk 

St. Croix 

Sheboygan 

Walworth 

Washington 

Waukesha 

Winnebago 

Totals 



Counties. 



o 

'A 

a 
es 

Eh 



157 

39 
198 
1.52 
400 
443 
274 
S97 
354 
5.57 
(>17 

57 
503 

67 
190 
797 
li;3 
743 
G83 
117 

93 
125 
841 
396 
583 
144 
9,64S 



a 
H 



151 

I 

300 
59 
470 
418 
3(i0 

I.IO,' 
398 
478 
574 
4 
578 
64 
154 
799 
116 
971 

1,060 

134 

51 

294 

1,008 
198 
659 
197 



10, 670 






56 



5 
CO 



175 

89 



6 
159 

8 

198 

27 

973 



10 



40 



Tweedt's plurality over Strong 1 , Oti 

Tweedy's majority of the whole vote 9 

On the 27th day of September, the Governor issued his 
proclamation, appointing a special session of the Legislative 
Assembly of the Territory, to be held at the Capitol in Mad- 
ison on Monday, the eighteenth day of October, to take 
such action in relation to the admission of the State into 
the Union and adopt such other measures as in their wi.s- 
dom the public good may require. 



5G0 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, 

The special session of the Legislative Assembly was com- 
menced at Madison on the 18th of October in pursuance of 
the Governor's proclamation. 

There had been but two changes in the membership of 
the Council since the preceding session. In Racine county, 
Marshall M. Strong had resigned and Philo White had 
been elected to fill the vacancy. In the district composed of 
Iowa, La Fayette and Richland counties, Ninian E. White- 
sides was elected in the place of William Singer, resigned. 

The members of the House at the previous session had all 
been elected for only one year, and elections were held in 
September for members of a new House of Representatives. 
Only two of the old members were re-elected, viz.: Timothy 
Burns, of Iowa county, and John M. Stewart, of Green 
county. 

The following were the members of the House at this 
special session — the second of the fifth Legislative Assembly: 

Racine: G. F. Newell and Dudley Cass. 

Wahvorth: Eleazer Wakely and George Walworth. 

Milwaukee: Isaac P. Walker, James Holliday and Asa 
Kinney. 

lotva, La Fayette and Richland: Timothy Burns, M. M. 
Cothren and Charles Pole. 

Grant: Noah H. Virgin and Daniel R. Burt. 

Dane, Green and Sauk: E. T. Gardner, Alexander Bot- 
KiN and John W. Stewart. 

Sheboygan and Washington: Benjamin H. Mooers. 

Dodge and Jefferson: Levi P. Drake, Horace D. Patch 
and James Hanrahan. 

Rock: Daniel C. Babcock and George H. Williston. 

Waukesha: George Reed and L. Martin. 

Craivford: Henry Jackson. 

Brown, Columbia, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Mat^quette, 
Portage and Winnebago: Moses S. Gibson and Geo. W. 
Featherstonhaugh. 

Of these, besides Messrs. Burns and Stewart, none had 
before been members of the Territorial Legislature, except 
Messrs. Pole, Burt and Mooers. 

The Council was organized by the election of H. N. Wells, 
President, Thomas McHugh, Secretary, and Edward P. 
Lockhart, Sergeant-at-Arms. 

In the House Isaac P. Walker was elected Speaker, and 
the other officers were the same as at the previous session. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 561 

The Governor's messai^e was brief and was limited to a 
recommendation of such, action by the Legislature in the 
early organization of a State government, as would meet 
the wants and wishes of their constituents. He expressed 
himself in favor of the admission of the State into 
the Union in time to be entitled to give its electoral 
vote at the presidential election of 1848, and again presented 
many of the advantages which would result from an early 
formation of a State government. 

The Legislative Assembly liaving determined to confine 
its action to this one subject, and the incidental one of the 
expenses of the session, referred the message to a joint com- 
mittee, which on the fourth day of the session reported a 
bill in relation to the formation of a State government, to 
the Council. On Saturday, the sixth day of the session, the 
bill passed the Council substantially as it came from the 
committee, and was sent to the House. 

On Tuesday, the 26th of October, the second day after the 
bill passed the Council, the House concurred in it with sev- 
eral amendments, some of which were agreed to, and others 
which were disagreed to were referred to a committee of 
conf(M-ence, where the disagreements were harmonized, and 
on the same day both houses concurred in the passage of 
the bill, and on the 2?th October it was signed by the pre- 
siding officers of both houses, approved by the Governor, 
and both houses adjourned sine die after a brief session of 
ten days. 

The new law provided for an election on the fifth Monday 
(twenty-ninth day) of November of delegates to form a 
constitution. The qualification of voters at the election 
was a residence of six months in the Territory, preceding 
the day of election, and in every other respect the same as 
that of voters for delegates to the former convention. 
Every person authorized to vote was declared eligible to be 
elected a delegate. 

It provided fo^ the election of sixty-nine delegates, who 
were apportioned among the several counties, as follows: 
Racine, eiglit;Milwaukee, seven; Walworth, Waukesha and 
Rock, each six; Grant, five; Jefferson, four; La'Fayette, 
three; Iowa and Richland, three; Dane, Dodge and Wash- 
ington, each three; Green and Fond du Lac, each two; 
Brown, Calumet and Columbia, each one; Sheboygan and 
36 



562 HISTORY OF THE TEREITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

Manitowoc, one; Winnebago and Marquette, one; Portage 
and Sauk, one; Crawford and Chippewa, one, and St. Croix 
and La'Pointe, one. 

The delegates were to assemble on the third Wednesday 
(fifteenth) of December, and have full power and authority 
to form a republican constitution for the State of Wiscon- 
sin. 

Each delegate was to receive two dollars and fifty cents 
per day for his service and ten cents per mile for travel, 
going and returning; and the officers such compensation as 
the convention should allow, all to be paid by the Terri- 
torial treasurer. 

The constitution adopted by the convention was to be 
published in all the newspapers in the State, at a sum not 
exceeding twenty dollars per paper. The convention was 
required to submit it to a vote of the people for their ap- 
proval (not rejection) and to provide how the votes cast on 
that subject should be taken, canvassed and returned, and 
to submit it to the Congress of the United States, and to 
apply in such manner as they may deem proper for the ad- 
mission of the State of Wisconsin into the Union. 

The act further provided that a census should be taken 
between the 1st and 15th day of December, of all persons 
residing in the territory on the 1st day of December. It 
was to be taken by suitable persons appointed by the Gov- 
■ernor — one in each county. 

It was further provided, that if the constitution should 
not be adopted, the Governor should forthwith issue a proc- 
lamation for an election of delegates to form another con- 
stitution at such time as he might designate, the delegates 
to meet on the fourth Monday after such election. 

The annual session of the Legislature was by the same 
act postponed from the first Monday of January to the first 
Monday of February. 

The election for delegates to the convention to form the 
second constitution took place at the time prescribed by 
law — November 29. The candidates in most of the counties 
had been nominated by the political parties to which they 
were respectively attached, and although party lines were 
not in all cases strictly adhered to, much the larger number 
represented in their political opinions the party majorities 
in the counties which the}^ respectively represented. There 
were about 25 Whigs and about 44 Democrats. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1847. 



563 



As the convention assembled so near the close of the year, 
and its session was continued until the 1st of February in 
the next year, any further notice of its members or their 
proceedings will be reserved for the next chapter. 

The following table exhibits the population of the Terri- 
tory on the 1st of December, 1847, as shown by the census: 



Counties. 


Population 


Counties. 


Population 


Brown 


2.914 

1.00 ; 


Marquette 


2,261 


Calumet 


Milwaukee 


22 791 


Columbia 


Portage 


1 504 


Chippewa — no ret urns 


Rac'ne 


19,539 
235 


Crawford 


1,409 
10, 935 
14,906 

7,409 
11,720 

6,487 

7,728 
11,464 

9,335 
307 

1,285 


RiclJanil 

Rock 


Dane 


14 729 


Dodge 


Sauk 


2.178 
5 5S0 


Fond du Lac 


Shebovsrau 


Grant 


St Croix ... . 


1 674 


Green 


Walworth 


15,039 
15 547 


Iowa 


Washington 


Jeflferson 


Waukesha 

WinnebagO' 


15,666 
2 787 


La Fayette 




Total 




La Pointe 


210 £46 


Manitowoc 









564 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN — 1848. 

The second convention to form a constitution for the State, 
in pursuance of the act of the Territorial Legislature of Oc- 
tober 27, 1847, met at Madison on the 15th day of December, 
at noon. 

A large majority of the members-elect were in attendance, 
and were called to order by Stoddard Judd, and on motion 
of F. S. LovELL, Hon. Charles Dunn of La'Fayette county, 
was appointed president pro tern., and on like motion 
Thomas McHugh was appointed secretary pro tern. Other 
temporary officers were appointed, when a committee of 
three was appointed to examine the credentials of members, 
and report thereon at the next meeting of the convention. 

On motion of Mr. Whiton, the rules of the last convention 
were adopted, until others should be adopted. 

The convention then adjourned until 10 o'clock the next 
day. 

On the second day of the session, the committee on cre- 
dentials reported the names of sixty-three delegates as 
elected, with regular credentials; that Ezra A. Mulford 
was entitled to a seat as a member from Walworth county, 
although by an error made by one of the clerks of election, 
fifty votes were returned for Cyrus A. Mulford instead of 
Ezra A. The result of this error was to give the certificate 
to Timothy Mower, Jr., who, the committee reported, was 
not elected. 

Charles H. Larrabee, of Dodge county, Orsamus Cole, 
of Grant county, and William McDonnell, of Green 
county, were admitted to seats in the convention, on mo- 
tion. 

Two others of the sixty-nine delegates — William H. 
Kennedy of Portage, and George W. Brownell of Saint 
Croix — were absent at the organization of the convention. 
They appeared on the following Monday, the 20th of Decem- 
ber, and were, on motion, admitted to seats. 

The following is a complete list of the members of the 
convention, with their residences, etc. : 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 



565 



NAMES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SECOND CONVENTION, WITH 
THEIR RESIDENCES, PLACE OF NATIVITY. AGES AND OCCU- 
PATION. 



Names. 



Beall, Samuel W 

Bishop, Charles 

Biggs, James 

Brownell, Geo. W 

Carter, Aijierin M 

Case, Squire S 

Castleman, Alfred L 

Cole, Albert G. 

Cole, Orsamus 

Collet, Joseph 

Cotton, E. P 

Crandall, Paul 

Chase, Warren 

Davenport, S. A 

DoRAN, John L 

Dunn, Charles 

Estabrook, Experience . . 

Fagan, James 

Featherstonhaugh, G. W. 

Fenton, Daniel G 

Fitzgerald, Garret M. . . 

FoLTZ, Jonas 

Foot, Ezra A 

Fowler, Albert 

FOX.WlLUAM H 

Gale, George 

Gifford, Peter D 

Harrington, James 

Harvey, Louis P 

hollenbeck, stephen b. 

Jackson, Andrew B 

Jones, Milo 

JuDD, Stoddard 

Kennedy, William H 

KiLBOURN, Byron 

Kdig, Rufus 

KiNNK, Augustus C 



Post Office. 



County. 



Taycheduh . . 
Dodgeville .. 
Farmer's Grove 
Falls of St. Croix 

Johnstown . 

Waukesha 

Delafield 

Burlington 

Potosi 

Beloit 

Oconomowoc. . 

Lima 

Ceresco 

Brighton 

Milwaukee 

Belmont 

Geneva 

Grafton 

Pequot 

Prairie du Chieu 

Milwaukee 

Jefferson 

Bachelors Grove 

Wauwatosa 

Fitchburg 

Elk Horn 

Waterville 

Elk Horn 

Clinton 

Highland 

Bristol 

Fort Atkinson . 
Waushara.. . . 
Plover Portage 
Milwaukee. ... 

Milwaukee 

Sugar Creek . . . 



Fond du Lac 

Iowa 

Green 

St. Croix... 

Rock 

Waukesha . . 

Waukesha.. 

Racine 

Grant 

Rock 

Waukesha.. 

Rock 

Fond du Lac 

Racine 

Milwaukee . 

La'Fayette.. 
Walworth . . 
Washington 

Calumet 

Crawford . . . 
Milwaukee . 
Jefferson . . . 

Rock 

Milwaukee . 

Dane 

Walworth . . 
Waukesha.. 
Walworth . . 

Rock 

Iowa 

Racine ... . 
Jefferson . . . 

Dodge 

Portage .... 
Milwaukee. . 
Milwaukee. . 
Walworth .. 



Nativity. 



Maryland 

New York 

N.W. Terrify 
Connecticut . . 

New York 

New York 

Kentucky .. 
New York.. 
MadisonCoNY 
N. Hampshire 
New York . . . 
Connecticut . 
N. Hampshire 
New York . . . 

Ireland 

Kentucky 

N. Hampshire 

Ireland 

Albany, N. Y. 
New Jersey . . . 

Ireland 

New York 

Connecticut 
Massachusetts 

Ireland 

Vermont 

New York . . . 
New York . . . 
Connecticut . 

Vermont 

Connecticut . 
Vermont. ... 
Connecticut . 
Pennsylvania 
Connecticut . 
New York . . . 
New York . . . 



48 
28 
48 
37 
33 
46 
39 
28 
27 
6.') 
35 
45 
35 
40 
32 

47 

34 

35 

33 

37 

38 

39 

38 

45 

34 

31 

34 

37 

27 

47 

33 

39 

50 

28 

46 

31 

37 



Occupa- 
tion. 



Lawyer. 

Lawyer. 

Farmer. 

Geologist. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Physician. 

Lawyer. 

Lawyer. 

Farmer. 

Miller. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Lawyer. 

Lawyer. 

Lawyer. 

Farmer. 

Miller. 

Lawyer. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Pliysician. 

Lawyer. 

Merchant. 

Carpenter. 

Merchant. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Farmer. 

Physician. 

Lumber- 
man. 

Civil Engi- 
neer. 

Editor. 

Farmer. 



5GG 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



NAMES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SECOND CONVENTION WITH 
THEIR RESIDENCES, PLACE OF NATIVITY, AGE AND OCCU- 
PATION — Continued. 



Name. 


Post Office. 


County. 


Nativity. 


o 


Occupa- 
tion. 


Lakin, George W 


Platteville 


Grant 


Maine 


30 


Lawyer. 


Larkin, Charles H 


Milwaukee 


Milwaukee.. 


Connecticut . . 


37 


Farmer. 


Larrabee, Charles H.. . 


Horicon 


Dodge 


New York 


28 


Lawyer. 


Latham, HoLLis 


Elk Horn 


Walworth . . 


Vermont 


.35 


Farmer. 


Lewis, Jambs T 


Columbus 


Columbia.. 


New York 


28 


Lawyer. 


Lovell, Frederick. S 


Southport 


Racine 


Vermont 


33 


Lawyer. 


Lyman, Samuel W . . 


Hustis' Ford . . . 


Dodge 


Massachusetts 


50 


Farmer. 


Martin, Morgan L 


Green Bay 


Brown 


New York 


42 


Lawyer. 


McClellan, Samuel R 


Lakeville 


Racine 


Massachusetts 


41 


Physician. 


McDowell, William 


Monroe 


Green 


Virginia 


42 


Farmer. 


Mulford !Ezra a 


Walworth 

Cottage Grove. 


Walworth . 
Dane 


New York 

New York 


43 

47 


Physician. 


Nichols, Charles M 


Farmer. 


O'Connor, John 


ShuUsburg 


La'Fayette.. 


Pennsylvania. 


33 


Merchant. 


Pentont, Patrick 


Mequon 


Washington 


Ireland 


35 


Farmer. 


Prentiss, Theodore 


Watertown 


Jefferson. .. 


Vermont 


28 


Lawyer. 


Ramsay, Alexander D — 


Cassville 


Grant 


Kentucky 


44 


Farmer. 


Reymert, James D 


Norway 


Racine 


Norway 


26 


Editor. 




Neenah 


Winnebago. 


Massachusetts 


34 


Farmer. 


Richardson, William — 


Jamestowi) 


Grant 


Ohio 


40 


Farmer. 


Root, Eleazer 


Waukesha 

Platteville 


Waukesha.. 
Grant 


New York — 
Kentucky .... 


45 
42 


Lawyer. 


Rountree, John H 


Farmer. 


Sanders, H. T 


Racine 


Racine .. . 


New York 


27 


Lawyer. 


ScAGEL, George 


New Berlin 


Waukesha.. 


Vermont 


49 


Farmer. 


Schoeffler, Morritz 


Milwaukee 


Milwaukee. . 


Bavaria 


34 


Printer. 


Secor, Theodore 


Mount Pleasant 


Racine 


New York 


32 


Farmer. 


Steadman Silas 


Sheboj'gan Falls 


Sheboygan.. 


Massachusetts 


63 


Farmer. 


Turner, Harvey G 


Grafton 


Wasliington 


New York 


25 


Lawyer. 


Vanderpool, Abraham . . . 


Waterloo 


Jefferson . . . 


New York 


41 


Farmer. 


Ward, Joseph 


Dodgeville 


Iowa 


New York 


43 


Merchant. 


Wheeler, V/illiam A 


Verona 


Dane 


Connecticut . . 


33 


Farmer. 


Whiton, Edward V 


JanesviUe 


Rock 


Massachusetts 


42 


Lawyer. 


WoRDEN, Allen 


Wiota 


La'Fayette.. 


New York 


26 


Merchant. 



But six members of the second convention were members 
of the first; these were Messrs. Beall, Chase, Fitzgerald, 
JuDD, Lovell, and Prentiss. All the others v^ere new 
members. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 567 

The convention was permanently organized on the second 
day of the session, the officers having been elected by ballot. 

The number of votes was G6. For president, Morgan L. 
Martin received 41, John H. Rountree 20, and there were 
5 scattering votes. Mr. Martin was elected, and at once as- 
sumed the duties of the office. 

Thomas McIIucii was elected secretary, having received 
44 votes to 22 for W. W. Brown. 

The other officers were elected by a corresponding divis- 
ion of the votes, which represented the relative strength of 
the political parties among the delegates in attendance. 

On the same day Mr. Fenton presented, by the particular 
request, as he said, of Col. William S. Hamilton, and as an 
act of courtesy to him, his petition contesting the seat of 
John O'Connor, to whom a certificate of election had been 
given as a delegate from La'Fayette county. 

On motion of Mr. Whiton the petition was referred to a 
committee of five, with power to appoint commissioners to 
take depositions in Iowa and La'Fayette counties, and to re- 
ceive such proof and allegations as thejjarties should judge 
proper to offer. 

The committee appointed by the President consisted of 
Messrs. Whiton, Fenton, Rountree, Lovell, and Kil- 
BOURN, by whom two commissioners were appointed to take 
depositions, which were returned to the convention and 
considered by the committee. 

Subsequently, on the loth of January, Mr. Whiton sub- 
mitted a report of the committee, to the effect that the com- 
mittee were — 

" Unanimously of the opinion that the contestant had not made out f-uch a case as 
entitles him to the seat in the convention now occupied bj-Hon. John O'Connor, and a 
majority of the committee are of the opinion tliat the Hon. John O'Connor is entitled to 
the seat now occupied Iiy him." 

The committee reported the following resolution: 

"■'Resolved, That William S. Hamilton is nor entitled to the seat in tiii.s convention now- 
occupied by the Hon. John O'Connor." 

The resolution was made the special order for the seven- 
teenth of January, when after an able and exhaustive argu- 
ment by Col. Hamilton, in favor of his right to the seat, 
and by Hon. Samuel Craavford, in favor of the right of the 
sitting member, the resolution was adopted by a vote of 
sixty-three to two. Messrs. Case and Lakin alone voting in 
the negative. 



568 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

On motion of Mr. Sanders a committee of seven was 
appointed by the President to report rules. The committee 
consisted of Messrs. Sanders, Dunn, Prentiss, Bishop, 
EsTABROOK, Lewis and King, and reported the same day a 
series of rules, which with some amendments were adopted. 

The resident clergymen of Madison were by resolution 
invited to open the convention each morning with prayer. 

Each member of the convention was furnished with 
sixty-five weekly newspapers, printed in the Territory, dur- 
ing the session. 

Considerable difference of opinion was early developed 
as to the best mode of bringing before the convention the 
propositions upon which the members were to act, which 
was disposed of by the adoption of a resolution 

"That a committee of nine be appointed to prepare and submit a plan for the progress of 
the convention, the number of committees to be appointed and such other suggestions as 
they shall deem proper and expedient."' 

The next day (Saturday, December 18th) the committee 
made the following report: 

"The committee to whom was referred the resolution to provide for the appointment of 
standing committees, submit the following: 

1st. A committee of fifteen on general provisions, comprising preamble, boundaries 
and admission of the State, suffrage and elective franchise, internal improvements, tax- 
ation, finance and public debt, militia, eminent domain and property of the State, bill of 
rights and such other provisions as may be referred to them. 

2d. A committee of seven on the executive, legislative and administrative provi- 
sions. 

3d. A committee of five on the judiciary. 

4th.- A committee of nine on education and school funds. 

5th. A committee of five on banks, banking, and incorporations. 

6th. A committee of seven on the schedule and other miscellaneous provisions." 

The report of the committee was adopted. 

At the next session the President announced the appoint- 
ment of the following standing committees: 

1st. Messrs. Kilbourn, Rountree, Sanders, Mulford, 
Reed, Larrabee, Fox, Beall, Carter, Jones, Schoeffler, 
McDowell, Scagel, Reymert and Brownell. 

2d. Messrs. Lovell, King, Fenton, Latham, Judd, O. 
Cole and Turner. 

3d. Messrs. Dunn, Whiton, A. G. Cole, Gale and Mc- 
Clellan. 

4th. Messrs. Estabrook, Root, Jackson, Worden, Har- 
vey, Vanderpool, Fitzgerald, Steadman and Fagan. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1S48. 569 

5tli. Messrs. Chase, Lakin, Bishop, Castleman and 
Wheeler. 

6th. Messrs. Prentiss, Lewis, Colley, Doran, Feather- 
stonhaugh. Ward and Cotton. 

Subsequently two other committees were appointed by 
resolution, viz.: 

On Incidental Expenses — Messrs. Fowler, Case, Secor, 
Nichols and Hollenbeck. 

On Engrossment — Messrs. Richardson, Kimne, Larkin, 
Foote and Pentony. 

The questions as to how to provide for, and in what man- 
ner, and what amount to pay tor the printing, elicited much 
discussion. Some members advocated the employment of 
specified persons, others the election of a printer, and still 
others the letting of the printing to the lowest bidders, 
while various modifications of these three principal modes 
were suggested. 

The result was the adoption of a resolution that the Sec- 
retary should receive sealed proposals for the incidental 
printing of the convention, and report the same to the 
convention. 

A motion to amend the resolution by striking out the 
word "incidental," so that the resolution would apply to all 
printing, of course including the journal, which was more 
than all the rest, was lost. 

Under this resolution proposals were made by W. W. 
Wyman, by Beriaii Brown and by Welch and Bird, to do 
the incidental printing at specified rates, which, althougli 
somewhat variant, contemplated a reasonable compensa- 
tion. But Messrs. Tenney, Smith and Holt, proprietors of 
the Wisconsin Argus printing establishment, made a pro- 
posal to do the incidental printing for one cent. 

A resolution was then adopted that Messrs. Tenney, 
Smith and Holt 

"ITavinp: offered the lowest bid for the same.be and are hereby arTx^intf^d to do tlie 
inci.leiitiil iirinting of this convention; Frovided, they shall tile security lor the perforui- 
ance of the same to the satisfaction of the President." 

This ended the controversy for the time, and Messrs. 
Tenney, Smith and Holt having filed the security, per- 
formed the work in a satisfactory manner. But the end 
was not yet. Ten days later Mr. Fenton introduced a 
resolution: 



570 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

"That the printers of the convention be directed to print five hundred copies of the 
daily slips, in Journal form, with a sketch of the debates daily, and to prepare an index 
therefor, and to have the journal of the convention printed, stiehed and bound and ready, 
so that each member can have a complete copy furnished him at the time of the adjourn- 
ment, or as soon thereafter as circumstances will permit." 

The resolution was considered the next day, when a mo- 
tion by Mr. Gale to fix a specified and reasonable price for 
the work was defeated by a vote of 17 to 47. 

A motion was made by Mr. Beal, modified by the sug- 
gestion of Mr. Harvey, that proposals be received by a 
committee and reported to the convention, for printing as 
indicated in the resolution, as also for printing the journal 
alone. This motion was lost by a tie vote of 33 to 33; when 
the resolution of Mr. Fenton was adopted by a vote of 34 
to 31, with a general belief that the profits in printing the 
journal and debates would compensate the printers for the 
losses in doing the incidental printing. 

The first article reported for the consideration of the con- 
vention, was that relative to the " Executive," which in the 
subsequent order of arrangement become Article V. 

The discussion of the article elicited quite a number of 
propositions for amendment. 

The first one was offered by Mr. Whiton, to change the 
term of office of the Governor from two years tc one year. 
This was defeated in committee of the whole by a vote of 
27 to 39, and afterward in the convention by a vote of 29 
to 34. 

The fifth section, as reported by the committee, provided 
that — 

" The Governor shall reside at the seat of government during his continuance in office, 
and receive as a compensation for his services, annually, the sum of one thousand five 
hundred dollars." 

The words in italics, requiring a residence at the seat of 
government, had been stricken out, when, on motion of Mr. 
Beall, the section was further amended by reducing the 
salary from fifteen hundred to twelve hundred and fifty dol- 
lars. 

The two questions pertaining to this article which princi- 
pally occupied the attention of the convention, were the 
GovP'-'Tor's veto and creating the office of Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor. 

In reference to the veto power, it was proposed to substi- 
tute a majority of the members elected to each house, for 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 57X 

two thirds of the members present, as the requisite number 
to pass a bill notwithstanding the objections of the Gov- 
ernor. 

The action of the convention upon this question was very 
fluctuating-. When the vote was first taken it was lost by 
27 to 36, and the article was ordered to be engrossed without 
the proposed change. Three days later, u])on a motion to 
recommit the article, Mr. Wuiton moved that the commit- 
tee be instructed to report the proposed amendment, and his 
motion was adopted by a vote of 31 to 27. When the com- 
mittee, on the next day, reported the article, with the 
amendment proposed by Mr. Whiton, the convention re- 
fused, by a vote of 30 to 35, to adopt it, and the article was 
passed without the alteration proposed. 

In reference to the office of Lieutenant Governor, it was 
proposed to dispense with it entirely, and to provide that in 
case of the death, etc., of the Governor, the duties of his of- 
fice should devolve upon the President of the Senate. 

The action of the convention upon this proposition was 
also quite fluctuating. The principal advocates of the pro- 
posed amendment were Messrs. Estabrook, Harvey, Kil- 
BOURN, Larkix, and W^hiton. Those who spoke against it 
were Messrs. A. G. Cole, Gale, Judd, and Lovell, while 
Messrs. Beall and King were at first in favor of the amend- 
ment and finally opposed it. 

The remarks of Mr. Harvey, in the light of his premature 
death in 18G2, are worthy of preservation. He 

" Thought the contingency against which it \vas proposed to guard In general very- 
remote. In the liistory of the Statt'S, very few cases had arisen where the office of Govei-nor 
liad been vacated by deatli or disability." 

He little thought then that within a few years his own 
untimely death, while holding the office of Governor, woukl 
furnish the first illustration of the utility of providing for 
the contingency. 

Mr. Beall said he 

" Thouf:rht it was a small matter either way, whether such an oflBce was or was not created. 
He thouglit it quite probable, however, that in case it was created there were plenty of 
persons who would be willing to fill it." 

In two years from that time, he demonstrated that one 
person at least was willing to fill it, by accepting the office 
to which he was himself elected. 

In the early stage of the consideration of the article, the 
several sections containing the words " Lieutenant Gmv- 



572 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

ernor " were amended by eliminating those words, without 
division, and without much opposition or discussion. 

But when it came to the question of the engrossment of 
the article, it was evident that a large number, if not a 
majority of the members, had concluded that the office 
ought not to be dispensed with, and a motion was made by 
Mr. A. G. Cole to recommit the article with instructions 
to provide for it. This brought out considerable discussion, 
and the motion at that time was lost by a vote of 30 to 32, 
and the emasculated article was ordered to be engrossed 
and read a third time without a division. 

When the question came up on its passage, Mr. Lovell 
renewed the motion to recommit with instructions, made 
three days before by his colleague, Mr. Cole, and after 
much discussion the motion was adopted. 

On the next day, the article was reported back with 
amendments which provided for the office of Lieutenant 
Governor, when they were adopted upon a call for the ayes 
and noes by a vote of 40 to 25, and the article in this respect 
was restored to the condition in which it was originally 
reported, and was then passed by the convention. 

The article as finally passed was a re-adoption of the 
same article in the first constitution, with only two material 
amendments. One was that the salary of the Governor 
was increased from one thousand to twelve hundred and 
fifty dollars. The other was the omission of a section of 
the first constitution, which provided that 

" The Governor and Lieutenant Governor, or eitner of them, shall not, during the term 
for which he or they are elected, hold any other office of trust, profit or emolument under 
this State or the United States, or anj- other State of the Union, or any foreign state or 
government." 

While the article entitled "executive" was under consid- 
eration, articles entitled "administrative," "declaration of 
rights," "banks and banking," "boundaries," "suffrage," 
^'judiciary," and "militia" were reported to the convention, 
followed closely with the various other articles which it was 
proposed should constitute the constitution, so that the con- 
vention was at no time without an abundance of work on 
its hands. 

The subjects which developed great diversity of opinion 
or excited much discussion were comparatively few, and 
were "boundaries," "judiciary," "legislative," "suffrage" — 
alien and negro — "exemptions" and "banks and banking." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 573 

Such parts of the constitution as related to other matters., 
were agreed upon without much difficulty or discussion, 
and were for the most part a re-adoption of the same or 
similar provisions in the first constitution. 



The article "on the organization and functio)is of the 
judiciary," as reported by the committee, differed from a 
similar article in the first constitution, chiefly in these pro- 
visions: 

The first constitution provided that 

"For the term of five years from the first election of judges of the circuit courts, and 
thereafter until the legislature shall otherwise provide, the judges of the several circuit 
courts shall be judges of the supreme court." 

While the second provided that 

"Urttil the legislature shall otherwise provide the judges of the several circuit courts 
shall be judges of the supreme court." 

And it provided that the judges should continue in office 
for such term as the legislature might determine by law, 
and that the legislature should provide by law for the elec- 
tion and classifying the circuit judges so that one should 
go out every two years, and thereafter the judge elected to 
fill the office should hold the same for ten years. The first 
provided that the judges should hold their offices for the 
term of five years. It also provided that the circuit judges 
should interchange circuits, and hold courts in such manner 
that no judge of either of said circuits should hold court in any 
one circuit for more than one year in five successive years. 
This provision for interchange of circuits was omitted from 
the article of the new constitution as reported and adopted. 
The judiciary article in the new constitution as reported 
and as adopted, conferred upon the legislature express 
power to provide by law for the organization of a separate 
supreme court to consist of one chief justice and two 
associate justices, while the first contained no such express 
power. 

Both of the constitutions contained a provision that — 

" All votes for either of them (the judges) for any office, except that of judge of the 
Supreme or Circuit court, given by the Legislature or the people, shall be void." 

The object of that provision was to prevent the election of 
judges to the office of Senator or Representative in Con- 
gress, but it has practically proved entirely ineffective and 
been regarded as in conflict with the provisions of the con- 
stitution of the United States prescribing the qualifications 
of members of Congress. 



574 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The judiciary article, as reported by the committee, was 
amended in the convention, by inserting the provision of 
the first constitution, that the judges of the Circuit court 
shall be judges of the Supreme court "for the term of five 
years and thereafter," until the Legislature shall otherwise 
provide. 

The principal controversy in the convention in relation to 
the judiciary article was upon the relative merits of the 
"separate Supreme court system" and what was called the 
"nisi prius system," in which the judges of the Circuit 
courts constituted the Supreme court. This question was 
very clearly and fairly presented by an amendment offered 
by Mr. Lovell to strike out all the sections relating to the 
nisi prius sj^stem, and inserting others establishing the 
separate Supreme court system. The amendment was lost 
by a vote of only 15 in its favor to 51 against it. 

The question of the location of the northwestern boundary 
of the State was one which developed some difference 
of opinion. There were two causes for this difference, 
one local, the other, while it concerned the whole State was 
in some sense national. 

The article on "Boundaries" reported by the committee to 
the convention was as follows : 

"Section 1 . It is hereby ordained and declared that the State of Wisconsin 'doth con- 
sent and accept of the boundaries' prescribed in the act of Congress, entitled 'An act to 
enable the people of Wisconsin Territory to form a constitution and State government, and 
for the admission of such State into the Union,' approved August 6, 1846; Provided how- 
ever. That the following alteration of the aforesaid boundary be and hereby is proposed to 
the Congress of the United States as the preference of the State of Wisconsin; and if the 
same shall be assented and agreed to by the Congress of the United States, then the same 
shall be and forever remain obligatory on the State of Wisconsin; viz. : Leaving the afore- 
said boundary line at the foot of the rapids of the St Louis River, thence la a direct line 
bearmg southwesterly to the mouth of Rum River, where the same empties into the Missis- 
sippi River, thence down the main channel of the said Mississippi River, as prescribed in 
the aforesaid boundary. 

Section 2. This ordinance is hereby declared to be irrevocable without the consent of 
the United States." 

This "preference of the State of Wisconsin," if it had been 
•assented to by Congress, would have carried the boundary 
about fifty miles further west than that prescribed by the 
act of August 6, 184(5, and would have included within the 
limits the entire valley of the St. Croix, and all of the left 
bank of the Mississippi below the mouth of the Rum River, 
including St. Anthony and St. Paul. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 575 

Mr. jBrownell, the delegate from St. Croix county, pro- 
posed an amendment to the proviso, by substituting the 
following after, "viz.:" 

"Leaving the aforesaid boundary line at the head waters of the Montreal River, where 
the State line of Michigan first intersects the same, from thence in a straight line south- 
west*^}- to a point a half degree due north of the highest peak of Blountain Island on the 
Mississippi River; thence due south over said Mountain Island to the center of the channel 
of the Mississippi River; thence down the center of the channel of said river as prescribed 
in the aforesaid boundary." 

The boundary proposed by this amendment would have 
been an average distance of sixty miles soutlieasterly of 
that prescribed by the act of Congress, and the territory 
between it and the "preference" line reported by the com- 
mittee, would have been sufficient for a State of respectable 
size. 

The "Browneir' line excluded from the State the entire 
valley of the Chippewa River, except some of its tributaries 
from the east and northeast. It would have run about ten 
miles east of the city of Eau Claire, and about the same 
distance east of Chippewa Falls. 

The argument in favor of this line, as far as it was based 
on local considerations, was that it left the valley of the 
St. Croix and its inhabitants an entirety instead of segregat- 
ing them as was done by the adoption of the St. Croix River 
as a boundary. 

That it was so far removed from the Chippewa River, that 
the larger portion of the population which should in the 
future inhabit the valley of that river would be under one 
government, when a new State should be formed north- 
west of Wisconsin, which, from its proximity to that valley, 
would better supply the governmental wants of its in- 
habitants. 

It was urged that the extension of the State to the " Rum 
Rivsr" line would make it too large, and that comparatively 
small states were more conducive to the welfare of the 
people than large ones. 

In a national point of view the consideration of providing 
for a larger number of free states in the north to offset the 
possibilit}' of the creation of more slave-holding states, was 
not lost sight of although not strenuously urged. 

On taking the vote there were but five members in favor 
of the amendment proposed by Mr. Brownell. These were 
Messrs. Brownell, Chase, Jackson, Larrabee and Reed, 



576 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

while of the other delegates fifty-two voted in the nega- 
tive. 

Mr. Brownell then proposed another amendment to the 
proviso^ viz.: 

"Leaving the boundary line in the middle of Late Superior, opposite the mouth of Burnt 
Wood {Bois Brule) River, from thence through the said mouth of Burnt Wood River in a 
direct line southwardly to the head of the most northwesteriy bend of Lake Pepin, to the 
channel of the Mississippi River, thence down the center of the channel of said Lake Pepin 
and the Mississippi River. 

This boundary if adopted would have preserved the in- 
tegrity of the St, Croix valley and left it outside of Wiscon- 
sin. But only two votes— Messrs. Brownell and Chase — 
were recorded in favor of it, and there were fifty-three 
against it. 

Mr. King then moved the following substitute for the 
proviso in the article reported by the committee, viz. : 

''Provided however. That the admission of this State into the Union, according to the 
boundaries described in the act of Congress, shall not in any manner affect or prejudice 
the right of this State to the boundaries which were 'fixed and established' for the fifth 
division or State of the northwestern territory, in and by the fifth article of compact in the 
ordinance of Congress for the government of the territory northwest of the River Ohio, 
passed July 13, 1787." 

The most efliective reasons urged against the amendment 
proposed by Mr. King were that its adoption would prevent 
the admission of the State into the Union. 

Mr. KiLBOURN said 

"The proposed acceptance of the boundaries prescribed by Congress would, with the 
proviso of Mr. King, be no acceptance at all. It would be enacted in the first section of 
the article that we do accept the boundaries prescribed by Congress, provided that we do 
not. * * * Our highest policy was to accept the boundaries of Congress 

unconditionally. Should the convention adopt the proposition of Mr. King, we would 
sacrifice all the provisions offered by Congress, even if we had a right to the boundaries 
proposed under the ordinance of 1787." 

The amendment was defeated by a vote of seventeen to 
thirty-eight. Those who voted in favop of it were Messrs. 
Beall, Biggs, Brownell, Castleman, O. Cole, Colley, 
ESTABROOK, Fagan, Fitzgerald, King, Lakin, McDowell, 
Reed, Richardson, Root, Rountree and Worden. 

The article entitled "Legislcitive," as reported by the 
committee, provided that "the number of the members of 
the Assembly shall never be less than forty-five, nor more 
than eighty." 

This was amended in committee of the whole by striking 
out forty-five and inserting fifty-four, and by striking out 
eighty and inserting one hundred. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 577 

In the convention both amendments were adopted on a 
call for the ayes and noes. That in relation to the minimum 
number by a vote of 37 to 30, the other — the maximum 
number — by 30 to 31. 

The article entitled " suffrage " elicited much debate, both 
in relation to granting the elective franchise to unnatural- 
ized foreigners, as well as to negroes. 

Section one of the article, as reported by the committee, 
provided that " all free ivhite male persons of the age of 
twenty-one years or upwards," belonging to certain 
specilied classes, should be qualified electors. Among 
these classess were " persons not citizens of the United 
States, who had declared their intention to become such." 

Mr. Dunn moved to amend the article by striking out 
section one and inserting the following : 

"Section 1. In all elections, every white male citizen, above the age of twenty-one 
years, having resided in the State one year next preceding any election, shall be entitled 
to vote at any such election. And every white male inhal)ilaiit of the age aforesaid, who 
may be a resident of the State at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall have 
the right of voting as aforesaid." 

The amendment offered by Judge Dunn presented fairly 
and distinctly the proposition that the elective franchise 
should be limited to citizens of the United States, with the 
exception of those who were residents of the State at the 
time of the adoption of the constitution. It was supported 
by him at length in an able and exhaustive argument in 
Avhich he was sustained in speeches by Messrs. Rountree, 
McDowell, O. Cole, Richardson, Castleman, Lakin and 
Root. 

On the other hand, the amendment was opposed and the 
policy of granting in the constitution the elective franchise 
to all persons of foreign birth, who have declared tlieir inten- 
tion to become citizens, in conformity with the laws of the 
United States upon the subject of naturalization, was advo- 
cated in speeches by Messrs, Gifford, Brownell, Be all, 
Sanders, Fox, Doran, Gale, and Jackson, 

On taking the vote by ayes and noes, in a full convention, 
there were 16 for the amendment and 53 against it. 

Upon the subject of negro suffrage, the action of the con- 
vention was somewhat unsteady and vacillating. 

The first movement was in committee of the whole, when 
Mr. ScAGEL moved to strike out the word "white," which was 
disagreed to. 

37 



578 HISTOEY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The motion was renewed in the convention by Mr. Chase, 
when, upon a call for the ayes and noes, it was decided in 
the negative by a vote of 22 to 45. 

Subsequently Mr. Estabrook, who had voted against 
striking out "white,"" offered an amendment to add this pro- 
viso: "Provided, hoivever, that the Legislature shall, at any 
time, have the power to admit colored persons to the right 
of suffrage on such terns and under such restrictions as 
may be determined by law."' 

This amendment was adopted by the close vote of 35 to 34, 
but on motion of Mr. Doran, who said he had voted in the 
affirmative under a misapprehension of the question, the 
vote was reconsidered, and the question being again put 
upon the amendment of Mr. Estabrook, it was decided in 
the negative by a vote of 34 to 35. 

On the next day Mr. Gale offered en amendment provid- 
ing for a quadrennial submission to the people, by the Leg- 
islature, of the question of equal suffrage to colored persons, 
which, upon the suggestion of Mr. Kilbourn, ho modified so 
as to provide that the submission might be at any time, 
when Mr. Harvey offered the following substitute, viz.: 

" The Legislature shall at anytime have the power to admit colored persons to the 
light of suffrage, but that no such act of the Legislature shall become a law until the same 
shall have been submitted to the electors at the next general election succeeding the pas- 
sage of the same, and shall have received in its favor a majority of the votes cast at such 
election." 

The substitute for Mr. Gale's amendment was adopted by 
a vote of 37 to 29, and then the amendment as thus amended 
by 45 to 21, when the article was ordered to be engrossed 
for its third reading without a division. 

When the article came up on its passage Mr. Kilbourn 
moved to recommit it to the committee of the whole, with 
instructions to substitute the following proviso for the one 
adopted the day before, viz.: 

^Provided, That the Legislature may at any time extend by law the right of suffrage to 
persons not herein mentioned, but no such law shall be In force until the same shall have 
been submitted to a vote of the people at a general election, to be held subsequent to the 
passage thereof and approved by amajority of all the votes cast at such election." 

Mr. Kilbourn said it would be observed that the amend- 
ment did not contain the words "colored suffrage" and he 
believed it would be more acceptable to the people. 

The article was recommitted with these instructions by a 
vote of 45 to 15, and the amendment concurred in without a 



TERRITOEY OF WISCONSIN IN 18-18 579 

division, and the entire article on suffrage passed as it now 
stands in the constitution by a vote of 53 to 1 3. 

The article in the rejected constitution ''on exemptions 
from forced sale'' was made a prominent and efficient ob- 
jection to its adoption. Many members of the second con- 
vention were in favor of incorporating in the constitution 
the principle of exemption, omitting all details. Of this 
number was Mr. Martin, the President of the convention. 

While the "declaration of rights," which contained no 
declaration on the subject of exemption, was under consid- 
eration in committee of the whole, Mr. Martin moved to 
amend it by inserting a new section, to stand as section IG, 
as follows, viz. : 

"The right of the debtor to enjoy the necessary comforts of life sliall be recognized by 
wholesome laws, exempting a reasonable amount of property from seizure or sale for the 
payment of any debt hereafter contracted. Estates held by the courtesy or in dower shall 
never be subject to execution against the tenant, nor shall the enjoyment thereof be 
altered or abridged by law." 

While the article was in committee of the whole, Mr. 
Martin modified his amendment by striking out the last 
sentence of it in relation to "estates held by the courtesy or 
in dower." It was then adopted in committee and reported 
to the convention, when several amendments were proposed. 

One by Mr. Foot to limit the value of exempted property 
to $500. 

One by Mr. Doran to insert after the word "necessary" the 
words "means to procure the." 

One by Mr. Folts to add to the section the words "which 
exemption shall in all cases be uniform in amount.'' 

One by Mr. Fox to substitute "common necessaries"" for 
"necessary comforts." 

And Mr. Chase moved as a substitute for the whole sec- 
tion to provide that 

"Every person has a right to a place to live, and it shall be the duty of the Legislature 
to provide by law for such exemptions from forced sale as are necessary to define and 
secure such rights." 

All the amendments were disagreed to, and the amend- 
ment proposed by Mr. Martin as modified by him, was 
adopted as section 17 of the declaration of rights by a vote 
of 43 to 21. 

At an early day of the session a select committee of five 
was appointed to consider and report upon the expedience 
of incorporating an exemption clause in the constitution. 



580 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, 

About two weeks after the adoption of the 17th section of 
the declaration of rights, a majority of the committee re- 
ported a separate article "on exemptions," as follows: 

"Section 1. The homestead of a family, not exceediug in value five hundred dollars, 
or at the option of the head of such family the tools and machinery of any mechanic, or 
other real or personal propel ty of any person, being a resident of this State, not exceeding 
in value five hundred dollars, shall be exempt from forced sale on execution for any debt or 
debts growing out of or founded upon contract made after the adoption of this constitu- 
tion; Provided, That such exemption shall not affect in any manner any niechanic's or 
laborer's lien, or any mortgage lawfully obtained. 

"Section 2. That the Legislature shall make such other and further exemptions as to 
them shall seem proper. 

"Section 3. The Legislature shall, at its first session, pass suitable laws for the purpose 
of carrying into effect the foregoing provisions." 

On motion of Mr. Larrabee, an amendment was adopted 
to insert before the article a resolution providing for a 
separate submission of it to the people, at the same time 
the constitution was submitted to a vote of the electors, 
and if a majority were in favor of the article it should form 
a part of the constitution; otherwise it should be rejected. 

Several other amendments were offered, none of which 
were adopted, and the article preceded by the resolution for 
a separate submission was ordered to be engrossed and 
read a third time, by a vote of 34 to 32, 

The next day, on motion of Mr. Case, this vote was re- 
considered by a vote of 35 to 31, and the article was of 
course open to amendment. 

Other amendments were offered only to share in a com- 
mon defeat, when the question was again put on ordering 
the article to be engrossed and read a third time, and the 
action of the convention was reversed by a vote of 30 in 
the affirmative and 36 in the negative; Messrs. Biggs, 
Case, Nichols and Root having changed from the aflBrma- 
tive to the negative. 

For the purpose of " clinching " the defeat of the article, 
Mr. LovELL moved a reconsideration of the vote, which was 
disagreed to without a division, and the question of " exemp- 
tion " in the convention was ended. 

The only remaining question which occupied much of the 
time of the convention, or developed great diversity of 
opinions among its members, was that of banks and banking. 

The committee on Banks, Banking and Incorporations 
submitted to the convention a majority and minority report, 
each accompanied by an article, which it was proposed 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 581 

should be adopted as a part of the constitution. Tlie two 
articles agreed in their negations, and differed only in their 
assertions. 

They both agreed that the Legislature should not have 
power to authorize the exercise of banking franchises, ex- 
cept upon the condition that the law conferring the franchise 
should, after its passage, be submitted to a vote of the electors 
of the State, and be approved by a majority of such votes. 

The article submitted by the majority, authorized the 
Legislature upon such condition to grant special bank char- 
ters, while the article submitted by the minority authorized 
the formation of banking associations under general laws, 
subject to the same condition of ratification by a popular Aote. 

After these reports had been about two weeks before the 
convention they were taken up for consideration and elicited 
the most elaborate discussion during a period of four days, in 
wdiich a very large number of amendments were proposed, 
none of which of any general importance were adopted. 

The discussion and the amendments all demonstrated that 
the temper of the convention was to limit the exercise by the 
Legislature of all power over the subject, so that it should 
not be eft'ective until ratified by a popular vote. But the prac- 
tical difliculty was in agreeing as to what powers the Legis- 
lature might exercise, even upon this restricted condtion. 

But the difficulty Avas at last solved by a substitute pro- 
posed by Mr, Larkix for the second section of the article 
reported by the majoritj^ 

The first section was permitted to remain as follows: 

"Section 1. The Legislature shall not have power to create, authorize or incorporate by 
any general or special law, any bank or banking power or privilege, or anj- institution or 
corporation, having any banking power or privilege whatever, except as provided in this 
article." 

Mr. Larkin's substitute for the remainder of the article 
w^as as follows: 

"Section 2. The Legislature of the State shall have power to submit to the voters at 
any general election, the question of 'bank or no bank,' and if at such election a number of 
votes, equal to a majority of all the votes cast at such election, shall be in favor of banks, 
then the Legislature shall have power !o grant bank chai-ters, or to pass a general banking 
law with such restrictions and under such regulations as they may deem expedient and 
proper. Provided, That said law shall have no force or effect until the same shall have 
been submitted to a vote of the electors of the State at some general election, and been 
approved by a majority of all the votes cast at such election." 

This substitute was adopted by a vote of 40 to 15, and the 
article then ordered to be engrossed and read a third time 
without division. 



582 



HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



But the end of the bank article was not yet. The next 
day Mr. Jackson moved to recommit it with instructions to 
report an amendment to the effect that the " majority of all 
the votes cast," not only on the question of " bank or no 
bank,"' but on the adoption of any law passed by the Legis- 
lature, should not be the majority "cast at such election," 
but the majority cast " on that subject." 

The motion of Mr. Jackson was adopted by a vote of 33 
to 28. 

The two amendments were reported by the committee 
v/hen the first was adopted by a vote of 34 to 30, and the 
second by 33 to 31, and as thus amended the article was 
passed by a vote of 51 to 13. 

The schedule provided that the constitution should be 
submitted to the electors of the State for their ratification or 
rejection on the second Monday in March, the election of 
State officers and members of Congress on the second Mon- 
day in May, and that the first session of the State Legisla- 
ture should commence on the first Monday in June. 

The convention, having completed its work, adjourned on 
the first day of February. 

On the 13th of March the proposed constitution was ratified 
by a majority of the electors, and became the constitution 
of the State of Wisconsin. 

The form of the ballot was monosyllabic " Yes " or " No." 

The following gives the result of the vote by counties : 



Counties. 



Brown 

Calumet 

Columbia... 

Crawford 

Dane 

Dodge 

Fond du Lac 

Grant 

Green 

Iowa 

Jefferson 

LaTayette . . 
Manitowoc ., 



Yes. 


No. 


218 


6 


55 


5 


513 


31 


120 


16 


871 


237 


872 


£82 


747 


183 


1,1.'37 


428 


510 


299 


651 


161 


909 


422 


659 


193 


122 


5 



Counties . 



Marquette . . 
Milwaukee. 

Portage 

Racine 

Rock 

Sauk 

Sheboygan . 
St. Croix.... 
Walworth . . 
Washington 
Waukesha . . 
Winnebago . 
Totals 



Yes. 

283 
2,008 

208 
1,073 
1,243 

245 

431 

15 

1,323 

1,090 

1,108 

328 
16.797 



No. 



13J 
C03 

58 

1.231 

511 

12 
110 
224 
574 
191 
798 

71 
0,"3^:i 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 583 

Congress by an act approved May 29, 1848, enacted — 

"That the State of Wisconsin be, and is hereby, admitted to be one of the United States 
of America, and is hereby admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original 
States in all respects whatever, with the boundaries, prescribed by the act of Congress 
approved August 6th, 1846, entitled 'An act to enable the people of Wisconsin Territory to 
form a constitution and State government, and for the admission of such State into the 
Union.' " 

No consideration appears to have been given to the 
"preference" expressed for the Rum River boundary, as no 
reference is made to it. 

The last session of the Territorial Legislature, which was 
the second session of the fifth Legislative Assembly, met at 
Madison in pursuance of an act of the preceding session on 
the 7th day of February. 

The members of both houses were the same as at the 
previous October session. 

The Council was organized by the election of Horatio N. 
AVells, President, and Thomas McHugh, Secretary. 

The House by the election of Timothy Burns, Speaker, 
and La Fayette KELLOCio, Chief Clerk. 

On the second day of the session Governor Dodge met 
the two houses in joint assembly, and delivered his annual 
message. 

He said — 

" The preparatorj- steps having been taken for the early organization of the State Gov- 
ernment, I have not deemed it proper to submit to the Legislative Assembly any subjects 
of general legislation." 

A large portion of the message was devoted to the subject 
of harbors on the western shore of Lake Michigan, showing 
the national character of such works, their value and im- 
portance to commerce generally, to the government as aux- 
iliaries to war measures, and the benefits resulting from 
them to the people more immediately interested in them, and 
recommended — 

"That the Legislative Assembly take such action on the subject of memorializing Con- 
gress, in relation to ha:-bor appropriations, as the good of their constituents may seem to 
require."' 

The message also recommended — 

" That a memorial from the Legislative Assembly be forwarded to Congress, asking 
for an appropriation to complete the improvement of Grant River, at the town of PotosL" 

The death of Silas Wright was referred to in the mes- 
sage, which said that — 

" When a member of the Upited States Senate he was an able supporter of the rights 
of the people of Wisconsin,'" and it recomnuMided " that a joint resolution of the Council 



584 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

and House be passed, expressive of the high estimation in which the memory of Mr. 
Wright is held by the people of Wisconsin . " 

The message contained, no other specific recommendation, 
and in conclusion said : 

" From the steps taken by the late convention for the organization of a State govern 
ment, it would seem that the least legislation done at the present session would best ac- 
cord with the wishes of the people." 

At an early day of the session a committer, to which the 
subject had been referred, submitted a report, that of the 
sum of $13,700 appropriated by Congress March 3, 1847, to 
defray the expenses of the Legislative Assembly for the 
year, the sum of $5,045.21 had already been paid for the Oc- 
tober session, leaving a balance unexpended of $8,654.79, 
applicable to the expenses of the present session. The com- 
mittee reported that upon a ratio of expenditures to compare 
with the October session, this sum would defray the expenses 
of a session of about twenty-four days. 

Ver}^ few laws of a general nature were passed. These 
were the following: 

" To make the official certificate of any register or receiver 
of any land office of the United States, in this Territory, 
evidence in certain cases." 

" To provide for the publication of legal and other notices 
in the several counties in this Territory." 

The act provided that where no newspaper was published 
in the county to which any legal notice related, it might be 
published in a newspaper published in the nearest ad joining 
county, or at the seat of government. 

"Concerning conveyances of real estate." 

This act related to the mode of executing conveyances out 
of the Territory. 

It also authorized any clerk of any court of record, or 
clerk of the board of supervisors or county commissioners 
in the Territory to take the acknowledgment of deeds and 
administer oaths. 

" Concerning commitments." 

The object of this act was to authorize officers in making 
commitments of offenders, to direct their confinement in 
jails in other counties than those where the commitments 
were made, when the jails in the latter counties were not 
safe. 

"To provide for the inc oiporation of cemetery associa- 
tions." 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 5S5 

"Authorizing the construction of electric telegraph lines 
in Wisconsin." 

The act authorized the construction of telegraph lines 
upon public roads and highways, and upon private property 
with the consent of the owner, and required an annual tax 
of twenty-five cents per mile to be paid to the Territory or 
State in lieu of all other taxes. It also contained some pro- 
visions regulating the order of the transmission of messages, 
and imposed penalties for willful injury to such lines or 
their appurtenances. 

Appropriate joint resolutions by the Council and House 
were adopted in relation to the death of Silas Wkight, as 
recommended by the Governor, and of John Quincy 
Adams, which occurred during the session of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. 

The message of the Governor referred in a feeling man- 
ner to the death of Captain Augustus Quarles, of South- 
port, who it stated — 

'Tell nobly, with a large portion of his command, on the battle field before tlie City of 
Mexico, with their country's flag waving triumphantly over them, in the face of the enemy. 
The memory of Captain Quari.es and the men who fell in battle under liis command in the 
defense of the rights of our comniou country, will long be cherished by the grateful 
people of Wisconsin." 

In harmony with these sympathetic expressions of the 
Governor, the Legislative Assembly — 

"Appropriated three hundred dollare to be paid to his mother, to defray the expenses 
of conveying for interment the body of Captain Quakles from New Orleans to this Terri- 
tory, in a manner befitting the character and dignity of the Territory in noticing the death 
of one of her distinguished citizens." 

The subject of the Territorial suits was one of general in- 
terest. Judgment had been rendered in Grant county 
against Doty and others, and all the suits were now under 
the exclusive management of the Attorney General — 
A. Hyat Smith. 

On the loth of February he submitted to the Legislative 
Assembly through the Speaker of the House, the proposi- 
tion of the defendants for an adjustment of all matters in 
controversy between them and the Territory. 

The proposition was made in May, 1847, and was in sub- 
stance that all matters in controversy be submitted to the 
arbitration of five indifferent persons — three to be named by 
the Legislature and two by the defendants — ^^•|M>^-; deter- 
mination sliould b(^ final. 



586 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A bill in conformity with the proposition had passed both 
houses, but before it had been sent to the Governor for his 
approval, a reconsideration was had, and a substitute 
adopted, the substance of which was that if the defendants 
should pay or secure to be paid within one year the whole 
amount of costs sustained by the Territory in the prosecu- 
tion of the suits, the Attorney General should direct the 
discharge of the said suits and judgment, and the payment 
of said sum should be received in full payment, satisfaction 
and discharge of all claims of either party, arising or grow- 
ing out of the subject matter of said suits and judgment. 

The substitute was concurred in by the House, and as 
thus amended, the bill became a law. 

The old claim of Daniel Baxter was again presented in 
the Council, and referred to a committee, which submitted 
an adverse report. 

Memorials to Congress were adopted as follows: 

For an appropriation of $17,315, to complete the improve- 
ment of the Grant River and the steam-boat landing at 
Potosi. 

For a suitable appropriation for a light house at Port 
Washington, and for a survey of the harbor at that place. 

That the military reservation on tlie east side of the Mis- 
sissippi River opposite Fort Snelling may be raised and the 
right of pre-emption granted to the former settlers thereon. 

Also that Fort Howard may be vacated and the reserva- 
tion of lands thereto attached for military purposes be sold. 

A memorial to the Senate of the United States was also 
adopted in relation to a treaty with the Menomonee tribe of 
Indians for the lands north of the Fox River. 

A joint resolution was adopted repealing and rescinding 
so much of the resolutions of the Legislative Assembly 
passed February 18, 1843, as were generally known as the 
repudiating resolutions. 

Of this resolution, Mr. Speaker Burns in his farewell ad- 
dress, upon the adjournment of the House, said it 

" Will in my opinion cause the members of this body to be remembered by the people 
of Wisconsin with feelings of pride and satisfaction. By this act of the Legislature the 
foul blot of repudiation has been wiped from our public record." 

This, it is believed, comprises a summary of nearly, if not 
quite all the measures of a general nature, which were 
adopted at this session of the Legislative Assembly. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 587 

Very much of the attention of the Legislative Assembly 
was directed to the subject of granting divorces. 

The constitution of the State, which was then before the 
people for their consideration, and the adoption of which 
appeared to be a foregone conclusion, contained a provision 
that the Legislature should never grant any divorce. 

Either this constitutional provision, or something else, 
brought an avalanche of petitions for divorce upon the 
Legislature, many of which were for causes that did not 
come strictly within any of the classes recognized by the 
law conferring upon the courts power to grant divorces. 

The Legislature appeared to assume the functions of the 
English Ecclesiastical Court, and to have considered the 
numerous petitions which were presented. 

These amounted in the aggregate to forty-two, of which 
nine were presented in the Council and thirty-three in the 
House. 

Of the nine presented in the Council, seven were acted 
upon favorably by that body and bills passed for the relief 
of the petitioners; the other two did not pass the Council. 

Of the thirty-three presented in the House, ten failed to 
receive the favorable action of that body, and bills for the 
relief of the other twenty-three petitioners passed the 
House and were sent to the Council, seventeen of wjiich 
were concurred in and six were not, while all of the seven 
which passed the Council were concurred in by the House. 

Of the whole number, twenty-four became laws, of which 
seven originated in the Council and seventeen in the House. 

One of these acts dissolved the marriage contract between 
Mary Smith and her husband John Smith, without any 
identification by residence or otherwise, to which of the 
possible Mary and John Smiths the act had reference. 

Eight acts were passed changing the names of persons. 
The name of Mary Ann Conner was changed to that of 
Sarah Briggs, Henry Heap to Henry Heap Kendall, 
William Williams to Arthur William Williams, Leon- 
ard Humphrey to Leonard Ravella Humphrey, Chris- 
tian W. Schwartz to Christian W. Schwartzburg. 
William Henry Hill to William Henry Gardner, Emily, 
Jane Ring to Emily Jane Hyer and Mary Smith, who was 
divorced from John Smith, to Mary Moore. 

The sum of seven hundred and fifty dollars was appro- 



588 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

priatecl for the heirs of the late Thomas P. Burnett, de- 
ceased, to be drawn by their guardian, as a compensation 
for his services as reporter of the Supreme Court of the Ter- 
ritory for the years 1844, 1845 and 184G. 

The legal voters of La'Fayette county w^ere authorized 
to vote for the permanent location of the county seat of 
that county, by designating on their ballots the place for 
which they voted, and the place receiving a majority of all 
the votes cast thereon was to be located and made the 
county seat by the next or any future Legislature of the 
Territory or State. If no place received such majority, a 
like election was to be held at any annual election until a 
county seat should be so selected and located. 

Until a county seat should be selected and suitable 
county buildings thereon provided, the county seat was to 
remain at the village of Shullsburg. 

In the county of Grant three propositions were submitted 
to the legal voters in relation to the division of that county, 
viz.: 

1st. To divide the county by an east and west line. 

2d. To divide the county by a north and south line. 

3d. For or against any division. 

An "east and west line," was defined by the act to mean 
the town line dividing towns four and five. 

A "north and south line" was defined to mean the range 
line between ranges two and three west, north of Platte 
River. 

An abstract of the votes cast was to be returned to the 
Governor and by him communicated to the Legislature for 
its further action. 

In the county of Fond du Lac, township thirteen of range 
eighteen east, townships thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and six- 
teen of range nineteen east, and townships fourteen, fifteen 
and sixteen of range fourteen east were declared to be a 
part of that county. 

All that part of Lake Winnebago lying south of a line 
extended west from the south line of the late Brothertown 
reservation to The range line between ranges 17 and IS. and 
all west of such range line and south of the town line be- 
tween townships 16 and 17, was declared to be a part of 
Fond du Lac count}^; and all of the lake north of such east 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 589 

and west line, and west of such range line, was declared to 
be a part of Winnebago county, and the remainder of the 
lake a part of Calumet county. 

The county of Adams was organized and attached to Sauk 
county, embracing the territory between Sauk county and 
the Lemonweir and Wisconsin Rivers. 

The next term of the District Court for Sauk county was 
required to " be held at the new court house in the town of 
Adams," but the clerk of the court was authorized to hold 
his office at Prairie du Sac until the commencement of the 
next term of said court. 

The seat of justice of the county of Columbia was estab- 
lished at the village of Columbus for the term of five years. 

The county of Manitowoc was organized for judicial pur- 
poses. 

The board of supervisors of Waukesha county were au- 
thorized to appoint suitable persons to procure from the 
office of the register of deeds, and of the district surveyor, 
copies of the records and surveys in Milwaukee county, af- 
fecting lands in Waukesha county, which copies were to be 
admitted in evidence in the same manner as the original 
records. 

The second bill introduced in the House was by Mr. 
MooERS, of Washington county, entitled : "A bill to enable 
the inhabitants of Washington county to permanently locate 
the county seat of said county by a vote." 

The county-seat question was one which excited an unu- 
sual degree of interest and feeling in the county, the result 
of which was that numerous delegations were sent to Madi- 
son to represent the conflicting interests, and the local feel- 
ing, to a considerable extent, was participated in by many 
of the members. 

The bill was first referred to the judiciary committee, a 
majority of which recommended that it do not pass. 

It was then recommitted to a select committee, a majority 
of whom made a report in favor of its passage, with some 
amendment, and the minority an argumentative adverse re- 
port. 

When the vote was taken upon the engrossment and 
third reading of the bill, it was defeated by 11 to 13. 



590 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

A motion was made to reconsider the vote, and it was lost 
by a more decisive vote of 9 to 14. 

On motion of Mr. Mooers, the petitioners for the law had 
leave by their representative to withdraw their petitions. 

The Speaker then immediately laid before the House a 
communication from Mr. Mooers, by which he resigned his 
seat as a member of the House, assigning as a reason the re- 
jection of the bill, which he considered, he said in his commu- 
nication, " a direct reflection upon the integrity, capacity and 
discretion of the citizens of Washington county." 

Quite a number of towns were laid off and created, viz.: 
In Dane county, Bristol, Pleasant Spring, Middletown, York, 
Medina, Dunn, Springfield and Blue Mounds, and the name 
of Clarkson was changed to Dane. 

In Dodge county, Harman, Shields and Theresa. 

In Rock county, the towns of Harmony and Plymouth. 

In Waukesha county, the name of Warren was changed 

to Merton. 

In Washington county, the towns of Taylor, Belgium, 
Trenton, Sackville and Wayne were created, and the name 
of Clarence changed to Farmington. 

In Fond du Lac county, Eden, Springvale, Eldorado and 

Forest, 
In W^innebago county, Utica and Winneconnah. 

The several acts passed at previous sessions, incorporating 
the villages of Pacine, Southport, Madison and Mineral 
Point, were each amended. 

The act of 1846, to incorporate the village of Prairieviile, 
and the act of 1847, amendatory thereof, were repealed. 

Two hundred acres of land in section 30, town 4, range 4, 
in Grant county, having in pursuance of an act of Con- 
gress, been entered by the judge of the district court in 
that county in trust for the use of the inhabitants of Beetown, 
Nelson Dewey, M, K, Young and Clovis Lagrave were 
appointed commissioners to execute the trust, by causing 
the land to be surveyed into lots and streets, and to hear 
and decide upon claims to such lots, 

A seminary of learning by the name and style of the 
"Du Lac Academy" was established and located in the 
village of Milton, Rock county. 

" The President and Trustees of the Sinsinawa Mound 
College" were created a body corporate and politic for edu- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848. 591 

cational purposes, and the college was located at Sinsinawa 
Mound, in Grant county, 

" On a plan sufficiently extensive to afford instruction in the liberal arts and sciences." 

"The Wisconsin Medical College" was incorporated and 
located in or near the city of Milwaukee, the objects of 
which were declared to be — 

"To promote the general interests of medical education atul to qualify young men to 
engage usefully and honorably in the practice of medicine and surgery." 

An act was passed to incorporate "the trustees of the 
funds and property of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
Wisconsin."' 

An act "supplementary to an act to incorporate the Mil- 
waukee and Waukesha Railroad Company approved Feb- 
ruary 11, 1847," was passed by which the Milwaukee and 
Waukesha Railroad Company was authorized to extend its 
railroad from the village of Waukesha to the village of 
Madison and thence west to such point on the Mississippi 
River in Grant county, as the company might determine. 

The great want and pressing need of the inhabitants of 
the Territory was that of increased facilities of intercom- 
munication, and especially of reaching the markets which 
the towns upon the lake shore furnished for the products of 
the farm. 

The time had not yet arrived, although it was rapidly 
approaching, for the construction of railroads. Home capi- 
tal was not adequate for that purpose, and it needed the 
stimulus of a through rail connection to the seaboard to in- 
duce eastern capital to enter upon the building of railroads 
west of Lake Michigan. 

Plank roads in this emergency became the favorite mode 
of meeting the popular need, and numerous applications 
were made to the Legislature for charters authorizing the 
construction of these and other turnpike roads. 

Sixteen acts of incorporation were passed at this session, 
giving to the companies authority to construct plank or 
turnpike roads and collect tolls. In most cases they were 
to be constructed of plank, but in some cases of other 
material. 

The routes of these sixteen roads were as follows: 
1. From Racine to Janesville, with branches to Water- 
ford, Rochester and Burlington. 



592 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

2. From Southport to Beloit, with branches to Burlington 
and Elkhorn. 

3. From Milwaukee, via Big Bend on Fox River, and 
East Troy to Janesville. 

4. From the outlet on Winnebago Lake to Manitowoc, 
with a branch to the foot of the Grand Kakalin. 

5. From Milwaukee, via the iron mines and Horicon, to 
Beaver Dam. 

6. From Milwaukee, via Hustisford, to Beaver Dam. 

7. From Fond du Lac to Beaver Dam. 

8. From Madison, via Lake Mills, Aztalan and Farming- 
ton, to Oconomowoc. 

9. From Sheboygan to Fond du Lac, with a branch to 
Taychedali. 

10. From Horicon to Marquette. 

11. From Port Washington to Beaver Dam. 

12. From Milwaukee, via Waukesha, Delafied and Sum - 
mit, to Watertown, and also from Waukesha to Bock River, 
via Gennessee, Palmyra and Whitewater, with a connecting 
track to Jefferson and Fort Atkinson, 

13. From Port Ulloa in Washington county, via Grafton, 
and thence on to Rock River. 

14. From Winnebago Lake to the foot of the rapids of the 
Grand Kakalin of Fox River. 

15. From Milwaukee to the town of Muskego, thence to 
Fox River, thence to Waterf ord and to Wilmot. 

16. From Hustisford to Columbus. 

The following Territorial roads were authorized to be laid 
out: 

From Beloit to White Oak Springs. 

From Janesville, via the Indian Ford, to Columbus. 

From northeast corner of section 6, town 9, range 12, in 
Dane county (town of York), via Bradley's Grove, to Dekora. 

From Monroe, via Green's Prairie and Blue Mounds, to 
Arena. 

From Green Bay, via Oshkosh and Waukau, to Fort 
Winnebago. 

From Hustisford to Milwaukee. 

From Fond du Lac, via Ceresco and Strong's Landing, to 
Plover Portage. 

From Fond du Lac, via Humesville on Fox River, to 
Plover Portage. 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1848, 593 

From Sheboygan, via Mayville, to Harrison, in Dodge 
county. 

From Fond du Lac, via Mayville, Neosha and Oconomo- 
woc, to Summit. 

From Fond du Lac to Ceresco. 

From Manchester to Sholioygan. 

From Southport, via Walker's bridge, Noxon's corners. 
Liberty and Welmot, to Beloit. 

From East Waupun, via Waukau, to Plover Portage. 

From Waukesha to West Bend. 

From Clinton to Waterloo. 

From Fond du Lac to Oshkosh. 

From Hustisford to the Watertown and Fox Lake road. 

From Dunkirk Falls, via Cambridge and Lake Mills, to 
Milford. 

From Janesville, via Clinton, to Columbus. 

From Plover Portage to Lake Puckaway. 

From the military road in Calumet county to Manitowoc. 

From Port Washington, via Greenbush, to Calumet. 

From Madison to Fort Winnebago. 

From Delafield to Fond du Lac. 

From Sheboygan to Horicon. 

From Whitewater, via the Indian Ford and Cook's Mills, 
to the Territorial road from Milwaukee to Mineral Point. 

From Jefferson, via Dunkirk and Cook's Mills, to Camp- 
bell's bridge, in Green county. 

From Madison, via Palmers Mills (Lodi), to Adams, county 
seat of Sauk county (now Baraboo). 

From Beaver Dam to Dekorra. 

From Fountain Prairie to Beaver Dam, 

From Columbus to the Waterloo and Columbus road near 
Stephen Linderman's. 

Commissioners were appointed to lay out and improve a 
territorial road from Sheboygan and Fond du Lac, and for 
that jiurpose a special highway tax of two and a half cents 
was levied upon the taxable property of certain towns 
through which the road ran. 

The franchises of keeping and maintaining ferries across 
navigable streams were granted as follows: 

To Thomas Noyes and Nathan H. Strong, across the 
Fox River at Strong's landing (now Berlin), in Marquette 
county. 
38 



594 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

To A. L. Gregoire and George W. Jones, across the 
Mississippi River on section 33, town 1, range 2 west, com- 
monly known as Boat Yard Hollow (opposite Dubuque). 

To John Morgan, across Lake Saint Croix, at Stillwater. 

To William Noble, acoss Lake Saint Croix at the mouth 
of Willow River (near Hudson). 

To Chester Matson, across the Wisconsin River on sec- 
tion two, town ten, range seven east (now Merrimac). 

Laws were passed giving authority to construct and main- 
tain dams as follows : 

To F. William A LLERDiNG, across the Milwaukee River 
on section four, town seven, range twenty-two. 

To Joseph Carley and Benjamin Brown, across the Mil- 
waukee River on section six, town eleven, range twenty-one. 

To Barton Salisbury, across the Milwaukee River on 
section twelve, of township eleven, range twenty. 

To Cicero Comstock and Charles H. Williams, across 
the Milwaukee River on sections four and five, town seven, 
range twenty-two. 

To A. Hyatt Smith and Ira Miltimore, across Rock 
River on sections one and two in town two, range twelve. 

To Elisha Morrow, across the Oconto River on sections 
twenty-six and thirty-five in town twenty-eight, range 
twenty. 

To Cadwallader C. Washburn and Cyrus Woodman, 
across the Peckatonica River on sections twenty and twenty- 
one in township one, range six. 

To Edward S. Hanchett, Chares Powell and Cyrus 
Woodman, across the Peckatonica River on sections thirty- 
one and thirty -two in town one, range six. 

To William A. Barstow, across Fox River on section 
seventeen in town fifteen, range ten. 

To J. Sprague Pardee, across Fox River on section three 
in town twelve, range ten. 

To Curtis Reed, across the north channel or outlet of 
Winnebago Lake on section twenty-two in town twenty, 
range seventeen. 

Each of the laws authorizing the construction of the three 
last dams across Fox River passed the House of Representa- 
tives without any opposition or division on the vote. And 
yet with that inconsistency which sometimes characterizes 
the action of legislative bodies, the committee on corpora- 



TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN IN 1818. 595 

tions in the House unanimously reported upon the petition 
of Henry Huskey and others, to build and maintain a dam 
across Fox River, that the navigation of the river was, 

'■ In their opinion, of such paramount importance to the great interests of the section 
of tlie country through which it flows, tliat they cannot, under the views which have been 
presented to them, discover any good reason why it shouUl be obstructed " 

They therefore reported that the prayer of the petitioner 
ought not to be granted. And it was not granted. 

John H. Orr and James White, of Dodge county, and 
their associates were constituted a corporation by the name 
of the '' Wisconsin Iron Company," " for the purpose of 
manufacturing iron."' 

An act was passed that the county of St. Croix should at 
each annual election, elect a suitable person to be surveyor 
or measurer of boards, plank or other sawed lumber, and also 
of saw logs and cord wood. 

The Council and House met in joint convention on the, 
0th of March and elected by ballot a territorial printer and 
Superintendent of Territorial Property. 

H. A. Tenney was elected printer, having received 23 
votes out of 35, of which William W. Wyman had 9, Beriah 
Brown 2, Blank 1. 

For Superintendent, J. Gillett Knapp received 23 votes 
E. M. Williamson 10, and Blank 2. Mr. Knapp was elected. 

After providing by law that the Superintendent of Terri- 
torial Property should put the Capitol and its furniture in 
suitable condition and order for the use of the first session 
of the State Legislature, and provide the necessary station- 
ery for the use of its members and officers, the last session of 
the Legislative Assembly of the Territory, on the loth of 
March, 1848, adjourned sine die. 

On the same day of the final adjournment of the Legisla- 
ture the constitution of the new State was ratified by the 
popular vote, and the Territory of Wisconsin became only 
a memory. 



OOG HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 

The reader of the foregoing pages, with but even a slight 
knowledge of the legislation of the Territory during the 
twelve years ending with 1848, cannot have failed to notice 
that no mention has been made of the legislation of that 
period in relation to the Milwaukee and Rock River canal. 

There was no subject that occasioned a greater public 
interest, and none which appeared to demand or which re- 
ceived a larger part of the time or attention of the Legisla- 
tive Assembly of the Territory of Wisconsin during its entire 
existence; and it is for this reason that it has been thought 
best to devote a chapter exclusively to a connected account 
of that work, in relation to which such high hopes and ex- 
pectations of usefulness were entertained only to be disap- 
pointed; and of the legislation affecting it 

Such a consecutive account must be more satisfactory 
than the fragmentary one which would have been presented 
by the mode adopted in relation to other subjects. 

The use of Rock River for downward navigation by flat 
boats had been made practically available before the Black 
Hawk war. On the 24th June, 1£30, John Dixon, the 
founder of the town of Dixon, 111., wrote to the editor of the 
Miner s Journal at Galena — 

'The first flat boat built ou the PickatoHca passed here this day, b^ ind to St. Louis, with 
or.e thousand pigs of lead (70,000 lbs.) for Col. William. S. Hamilton." 

Its navigability upward for steam-boats was demonstrated 
a few years later. 
The Galena Gazette of May 17, 1838, says: 

"The steam-boat ' Gipsy," Gray master, lately ascended Rock River as far as the mouth 
of the Pekatoneca." 

During the summer of 1836 public attention was directed 
to the importance of uniting the waters of Lake Michigan 
with those of Rock River by means of a canal; and, although 
the country was then but little known, some general exam- 
inations were made by Hon. Byron Kilbourn, who had not 
only devoted much time to the surveys of the public lands 
in Wisconsin, but had been in charge as civil engineer of 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 597 

the canal in Ohio, connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio 
River. Reconnoisances had also been made by other com- 
petent persons, all of which resulted in the conviction that 
such a canal could be constructed, and at a moderate ex- 
pense. 

At the first session of the Legislative Assembly, held at 
Belmont, in 183G, a petition was presented, signed by nu- 
merous citizens, which set forth some of the advantages of 
such a canal and its feasibility, and asking for the passage 
of " an act incorporating a company for the purpose of con- 
structing a navigable canal, from navigable water in the 
Milwaukee River, to navigable water in the Rock River." 

The petition was referred to a standing committee, which 
reported a bill " to incorporate the Milwaukee and Rock 
River Canal Company." The bill was laid on the table, and 
no further action was had on the subject during that ses- 
sion. 

During the year 1837, a preliminary survey was made by 
Mr. KiLBOURN and Hon. Increase A. Lapiiam LL. D., a dis- 
tinguished civil engineer — afterwards Chief Geologist of the 
state of Wisconsin — by which the entire feasibility of the 
work was ascertained, and an approximate estimate made 
of its cost. 

During the same year public attention was further di- 
rected to the subject by a series of five articles, published in 
the Miliuaiikee Advertiser, which gave a description of the 
proposed route, the connection of other water courses with 
the canal and with Rock River, especially the Pishtika 
(Fox), Pickatoneca, and the River of the Four Lakes, and 
contained a most complete view of the bearing which the 
construction of the work would have upon that part of the 
Territory through which the canal would pass, and upon 
other portions of the Territory. ^ 

At the next annual session of the Legislative Assembly, 
held at Burlington, in November, 1837, petitions were pre- 
sented similar to those presented at the previous session, 
and asking for a similar act of incorporation. 

A bill was reported in the House of Representatives, in 
conformity with the prayer of the petitions, which, after 
being amended in both houses, finally passed both, entitled, 
"An Act to Incorporate the Milwaukee and Rock River 
Canal Company," and mi the oth January, 1838, received the 
approval of the Governor. 



598 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

It provided that such persons as should become stock- 
holders, agreeably to the provisions of the act, should con- 
stitute the corporation. 

That the capital stock of the corporation should be 
$100,000, which might he increased to a sum not exceeding 
$1,000,000 to be divided into shares of $100 each. 

That John S. Rockwell, Alvix Foster, Augustus A. 
Bird, Madison W, Cornwall, Solomon Juneau, James 
Sanderson and Byron Kilbourn should be commissioners 
for receiving subscriptions to the capital stock, to whom one 
dollar on each share subscribed was to be paid by the 
subscriber at the time of subscribing, and they were to con- 
tinue receiving subscriptions until $50,000 should have been 
subscribed, when the books might be closed, and together 
with the money received on subscription, transferred to the 
directors provided for by the act. 

That the affairs of the company should be managed by a 
board of seven directors to be annually chosen by the stock- 
holders. The first directors were to be chosen on notice 
given by the commissioners. 

That the corporation should 

"Have the right to construcc, maintain and continue a navigable canal or slackwater 
navigation from the town of Milwaukee to Rock River, on such routes and of such dimen- 
sions and to terminate at such point as shall be determined on by said corporation, and 
to construct such navigable feeders of said canal as shall be found actuallj* necessary, and 
also a branch canal to connect with the Fox or Pishtaka Rivers, at or near Prairie Vil- 
lage, in Milwaukee county." 

The right to take private property was given, and a mode 
provided for making compensation to the owner. 

The tolls were to be prescribed by the Legislature of the 
Territory or future State. 

The corporation was authorized to borrow money. 

The corporation was required to commence the construc- 
tion of the works authorized by the act within three years, 
and in default thereof, the privileges were to be forfeited 
and the act null and of no effect. The right to complete so 
much as should not be completed within ten years should 
be forfeited. 

Section twenty-three of the act was as follows : 

" That the future State of Wisconsin, at any time after its admission into the Union, 
shall have the right to purchase and hold for the use of the State, the canal, herein au- 
thorized to be constructed, together with all its branches and other improvements by 
paying to the said corporation, the amount actually expended in the construction and 
repairs of the same, together with such reasonable interest, not more than seven per 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 599 

centum per annum, as niaj- be agreed upon by and between said State and the corpo- 
ration ; 

Provided, hotoever. That in case the Congress of the United States shall make any 
appropriation or donation, either in land or mone.v, in aid of the construction of the work 
by this act authorized, the right to the same shall vest in said State whenever the said 
transfer of the canal shall be made; and the net proceeds of all sales of land and the 
amount of all money so appropriated or donated, shaU be deducted from the amount to 
be paid to the said corporation for the transfer of said works to the State. And the said 
corporation are hereby authorized to apply to Congress for such an appropriation, in 
money or lands, to aid in the construction of the works authorized by this act, as Congress 
in its wisdom shall see proper to grant." 

In case of a donation of lands by Congress to aid in the 
construction of the canal, if any such lands should at the 
time be actually improved and settled upon by any person, 
the corporation was required to sell to such settler the land 
so settled upon — a quarter section or 160 acres — at $1.25 
per acre. 

These are the most material provisions of the act. 

Books of subscription were opened at Milwaukee under 
the direction of the commissioners on the second day of 
February, 1838, and a sufficient amount of stock immedi- 
ately subscribed, and a meeting of the stockholders notified 
to be held on the next day. 

At the stockholders meeting held February -1, 1838, the 
following board of directors was elected : Byron Kilbourn, 
Solomon Juneau, John S. Rockwell, James H. Rogers, 
Samuel Brown, Sylvester D. Cow^les and Wm. R. Long- 
street. 

Byron Kilbourn was elected president, F. A. Wingfield, 
secretary, C. H. Peak, treasurer, and I. A. Lapham, engi- 
neer. 

On the 1 2th of February the directors adopted a memorial 
of the Company to the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States. It stated the incorporation of the 
company, its purposes and its authority to apply to Con- 
gress in behalf of the Territory or future State, for aid in 
the construction of a canal to connect Lake Michigan at Mil- 
waukee with the navigable waters of Rock River. 

It set forth the importance of the canal to the Territory 
and to the general government, and the facilities of the 
navigation and hydraulic power of Rock River and its trib- 
utaries. 

It represented that the organization of the company had 
been so shaped as to constitute it an agency foi- the future 



GOO HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

State, which might be erected in the limits of the Territory 
rather than a company with permanent rights and privi- 
leges, and referred to the reserved right of the future State 
to purchase the canal and its privileges, thus securing to 
the State whatever the liberality of Congress might grant. 
The memorial asked a grant of land similar to the several 
grants to the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, in aid of 
similar works, each of which granted to the respective 
works — 

"A quantity of land equal to one half of five sections in width on each side of said canal, 
and reserving each alternate section to the United States, from one end of said canal to the 
other." 

And expressed - 

"The rational hope that just and liberal views and sentiments towards this young and 
flourishing portion of the United States, will imiDel your honorable body to appropriate in 
aid of this work, an amount of land equal to that granted for similar objects elsewhere, as 
before cited." 

On the 14th of February, the Chief Engineer, Mr. Lap- 
ham, submitted to the directors an estimate of the probable 
cost of constructing the canal. In making the estimate the 
work was divided into eight sections, varying in distance 
from one mile to twenty-two. Separate estimates were sub- 
mitted upon each section for grubbing and clearing, for ex- 
cavation and embankment, for masonry in locks, for dams 
and for a feeder half a mile in length, and showed an aggre- 
gate estimated cost of $730,515. The estimated lockage 
from Milwaukee to the summit was 316 feet, and from the 
summit to Rock River, 80. The estimated cost of the Pish- 
taka branch, length five miles, lockage 40 feet, was $68,200. 
Total estimated cost of canal and Pishtaka branch, $798,715. 
Total lockage both ways, 436 feet. 

A resolution was adopted by the directors, that it was ex- 
pedient to send some person to Washington to further the 
interests of the canal and of the company, and that Mr. 
KiLBOURN be requested to act as such agent. In compliance 
with this resolution Mr. Kilbouen went to Washington with 
the foregoing memorial and estimate, which, on the 6th of 
March, were introduced into the Senate by Hon. C. C. Clay 
of Alabama and referred to the committee on public lands 
and ordered to be printed. 

The committee on public lands reported on the 9th of 
April favorably to the application of the company accom- 
panied by a bill making a grant in conformity with it. 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL GOl 

The report was quite lengtliy, and presented an elaborate 
argument in favor of making the grant. 

It spoke favorably of tlie feasibility of the work, and the 
facility with wliich it could be executed; its importance to 
the government in case of the invasion of the northwestern 
frontier and of Indian incursions; its value "as opening a 
new and important connection with the lead mine district 
of which it (the Government) is the principal proprietor; " 
the increased sale of the public lands, and concluded as 
follows: 

" In reUilion to tlio canal under consideration, it apjiears to possess some valuable feat- 
ures. The country through which it passes is represented as being very fertile, and capa- 
ble of sustaining a dense population. Its agiiculliu-al productions are such as are usually 
found in the northern and middle states; and being intersected in various directions, by 
streams furnishing valuable hydraulic power, and possessing a moderate climate and 
wholesome air, it will probably in a few years, become an important section of the Union. 
The exports of this Territory will always possess much value, especially those of the min- 
eral kind; and where an export trade of large amount is carried on, a large import may be 
expected also. Resting on the IVIississlppi, upon the one hand, and on the lakes upon the 
other, this country is favorably situated for commercial transactions; aad by means of the 
proposed canal, a connecting linlc is formed by which to effect exchanges between those 
great thoroughfares: and a comnmnication is opened from the interior to the distant mar- 
kets of New York and the mauufactiu'ing districts of the east, as also of New Orleans and 
the plantations of the lower Mississippi. 

" Being satisfied tliat the present as well as future interests of the Government buth in a 
local and general respect, will be advanced by the construction of this canal, your commit- 
tee report herewith a bill to grant the amount of land desired." 

The fourth (and last) section of the bill as reported, was 
as follows : 

" Section 1. That the alternate sections which shall be reserved to the United States, 
agreeably to the first section of this act, sliall not be sold for a less sum than two dollars 
and fifty cents ]ier acre." 

The bill came up for consideration on the 1st of June. On 
motion of Mr. Buchanan of Pennsylvania, it was amended 
by adding to the end of the fourth section, these words : 

" And not subject to pre emption," 

and without other amendment it passed the Senate. 

But this little amendment was of great importance to 
the " settlers " and had the effect to remove from the opera- 
tion of the pre-emption laws subsequently passed, the alter- 
nate sections reserved to the government. 

The bill in this shape went to the House of Representa- 
tives, where it was referred to the committee on public 
lands, and in the hands of that committee was mnterially 
changed by amendments. 



GO:;; HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The principal amendments reported by the committee 
and adopted by the House of Representatives, were two 
recommended by the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office. 

One was designed to fix more definitely the western ter- 
minus of the canal. The Senate bill fixed no point of ter- 
mination on Rock River, and the canal might have been 
constructed from Milwaukee to the mouth of that river, 
with a grant of land five miles in width for the whole dis- 
tance. To obviate this defect, the bill as reported by the 
House committee, fixed the western terminus 

"Between the point of intersection with said river of the line dividing townships seven 
and eight, and the Lake Koshkonong." 

This limitation gave a range of nearly twenty miles of the 
river. 

The other amendment was designed to obviate some am- 
biguities and indefiniteness in the Senate bill, which made 
it the duty of the commissioner to select the alternate sec- 
tions. The amended House bill granted 

" All the land in those sections which are numbered with odd numbers within the breadth 
of five full sections taken in north and south, or east and west tiers on each side of the 
main route of said canal from one end thereof to the other." 

The 6th and 7th of June having been set apart for the 
consideration of Territorial business, this bill was taken up 
in the House, and some amendments were adopted. One 
was to increase the minimum price at which the lands 
granted might be sold, from one dollar and twenty- five 
cents to two dollars and fifty cents per acre. Another de- 
fined the relations of the future State of Wisconsin to the 
canal, and its rights and liabilities in reference to the stock 
of the company, and the proceeds of the sales of lands, and 
required the assent of the future State to the act. Another 
authorized the Territory to borrow on the pledge of the 
lands such sum as they might think expedient. And the as- 
sent of Congress waS given to the act incorporating the 
canal company. 

The amendments of the House were concurred in by the 
Senate, and on the 18th of June the bill became a law by 
receiving the approval of the President. 

On the Gth of August the Board of Directors adopted a 
resolution that it would at all times lend its most hearty 
efforts and co-operation in securing to the settlers the 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 603 

granted lands which have been occupied and improved by 
them. 

On the 27th of September, Mr. Kilbourx w^as appointed 
Acting- Commissioner, to employ hands, provide the neces- 
sary outfit, and direct and superintend the operations of 
the engineer department, in running and locating the line 
of canal, and in the field operations generally, subject to 
the orders of the Board of Directors. 

An engineer party was organized, and was engaged in 
making further preliminary surveys and examinations of 
the country along the route of the proposed canal during 
the remainder of the year 1838, preparatory to making a 
final location of the line, which, however, was not completed 
until the following month of May. 

At the session of the Legislative Assembly w^hich con- 
vened on the 2Gth of November, 1838, the Governor in his 
annual message referred to the act of Congress making the 
grant of land, and recommended the propriety of memorial- 
izing Congress asking the extension of the right of pre- 
emption to all actual settlers on the line of the canal, 

A memorial was adopted, but no action was taken upon 
it in Congress. 

At this session a bill drawn by the president of the canal 
company was presented for the consideration of the mem- 
bers, which contained the plans of the company for utilizing 
the lands granted by Congress, and effecting the construc- 
tion of the canal. 

The prominent ideas of the bill were, a sale of the lands 
on a long credit, and what at that time was moderate inter- 
est, and obtaining funds for the construction of the work 
by borrowing money on the credit of the territory, supple- 
mented by the proceeds of the sales of the lands. 

It authorized the Governor to borrow on the credit of the 
Territory not exceeding $500,000, in installments as follows: 
On the 1st of September, 1839, $50,000; 1810, $100,000; 1841, 
$150,000; and 1843, $200,000; payable in not less than ten 
nor more than twenty years from the time when each in- 
stallment should be received, bearing interest at six per 
cent, per annum, payable semi-annually. 

The proceeds of the land sales, the canal revenues, the 
canal itself and the faith of the Territory, were inviolably 
pledged for the payment of the interest and redemption of 
the principal of the loan. 



C04 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The Grovernor was authorized to appoint such agents as 
he might think necessary and proper for the purpose of ob- 
taining the loan. 

Tlie proposed bill provided for the appointment of three 
persons by the Governor and Council, to be known as 
Commissioners of Appraisal. These commissioners were 
to make a registry of the lands that had been settled upon 
and occupied within the grant, to which the occupants 
would be entitled, for which purpose they were empowered 
to administer oaths and take testimony. 

They were also to make out a schedule and valuation of 
all the granted lands, in legal subdivisions, annexing to 
each tract such price as they might consider such tract to 
be worth, taking into consideration the enhanced value 
which the canal would give to the lands, and a rule of min- 
imum valuation was prescribed by the bill varying from 
$3.50 to $10.00 per acre, in proportion to the distance of the 
tract from the canal, and depending upon other circum- 
stances affecting its value, such as the intrinsic value of the 
land, the improvements of the surrounding country, the 
vicinity to towns, town sites, mill improvements, lockage 
and water power created by the construction of the canal. 

The commissioners of appraisal were also to determine 
upon the right of occupants to purchase at the minimum 
price, lands claimed by them to have been occupied by 
them, and were to determine all conflicting claims, and 
were to issue certificates of such right, and all occupants 
having such certificate were authorized by the bill to bid 
off the land described in such certificate, at $2.50 per acre, 
when the same should be offered for sale, and officers hav- 
ing charge of the sale were prohibited from receiving any 
bid in opposition to said occupant. 

The bill provided for a public sale of the canal lands at 
stated periods in the following manner, viz.: on the fourth 
Monday in June, 1839, all the northeast quarters, and all 
the "occupied" lands; at the same time in 1840 all the south- 
west quarters; at the same time in 1841 all the northwest 
quarters; and at the same time in 1812 all the southeast 
quarters, and such lands as had been previously offered and 
not disposed of; at the same time in 1843 all the residuary 
lands were to be offered to the highest bidder, at not less 
than their appraised value, and at the same time, in 1844, 
all remaining unsold were to be offered to the highest 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 605 

bidder at not less than $^i.50 per acre, and if there still re- 
mained any poor and unsalable lands they were to be 
offered for sale on the fourth Monday of June, 1845, to the 
highest bidder without reservation. 

The bill provided that a register and receiver should be 
appointed by the Governor and Council, whose duty it 
should be to superintend the sales of the canal lands and 
make returns of each sale thereof to the Governor, in the 
same manner that returns were made from the land offices 
of the United States to the General Land Office. The com- 
pensation of each was to be one per centum on the amount 
of all sales made by them. 

It provided that the canal lands should bo put up to sale 
in tracts of eighty acres or fractions under one hundred 
acres, according to legal subdivisions, and for each tract 
sold ten dollars should be paid on the day of sale, and for 
the balance a bond and mortgage should be taken, condi- 
tioned for the payment of one fourth part within five years, 
one fourth in six years, one fourth in seven years and the 
remaining one fourth in eight years with interest payable 
semi-annually from the date of sale, at the rate of seven 
per cent, per annum, with some exception as to interest in 
case of occupants — provided full payment might be made 
at any time. 

The bill provided for the appointment by the Governor 
and Council of a chief engineer on behalf of the Territory, 
who was to keep a general supervision over the canal and 
supervise its progress, make or revise and certify for pay- 
ment estimates for work done and report annually to the 
Legislature the condition of the work and receive a salary 
not exceeding dollars. 

The bill contained provisions for the application of the 
proceeds of the sales of the lands to the payment of the in- 
terest and redemption of the principal of moneys obtained 
by the Governor on loan. 

It contained other matters of detail, and was supposed to 
present a complete plan of the mode? ul operation, desired 
by the company to enable it to proceed effectively and 
speedily with the work so far as Legislation was desirable 
in aid of such modes. 

On the loth December, Hon. Daniel Wells, Jr. intro- 
duced a bill which conformed substantially to the foregoing 
bill prepared by Mr. Kilbojjrn, which was twice read, laid 



606 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

on the table and extra copies ordered printed. No action 
was had on it at that session, which adjourned on the 22d 
December, until the 21st January. In the mean time a feel- 
ing had been for some time growing in Milwaukee and Jef- 
ferson counties, in the supposed interests of the settlers 
upon the ten mile strip embracing the canal grant, and in 
favor of promoting settlements on that strip, on the one 
hand, and of consequent hostility to the construction of the 
canal on the other. These feelings were founded upon the 
opinion that the construction of the canal, and the plans of 
the company for the disposition of the lands, would greatly 
enhance the cost of the lands and retard the settlement of 
the country. 

Whether these popular feelings influenced the action of 
the Legislative Assembly or not, it is certain that its action 
was very different from and far short of what the canal 
company deemed desirable to promote the effectual and 
speedy construction of their proposed work. 

While the Legislature adopted the idea of long credits 
and low interest in making sales of canal lands, thus clos- 
ing the door to any immediate revenue frorq. that source, 
they declined to authorize the making of a loan on the credit 
of the Territory of any such sum as was adequate to the 
construction of the work, or even of its commencement in 
such a manner as to give promise of its completion. 

The bill introduced by Mr. Wells in December, probably 
died with the adjourument, but whether it did or not, it was 
not afterwards considered. 

On the 25tli of January, a new bill on the subject was in- 
troduced by Hon. Wm. A. Prentiss, which was copied 
largely in its details from the one prepared by the president 
of the canal company, but differed from that very mate- 
rially in some of its most essential features. 

It was amended in both houses, and on the 26th February 
received the approval of the Governor, and thereby became 
a law under the title of 

"An act to provide for aiding in the construction of the Milwaukee and Rock River 
canal." 

The first section enacted 

" That to aid in the construction of the Milwaukee and Rock River canal, the Governor 
of the Territory be and he is hereby authorized to borrow on the pledges hereinafter pro- 
vided, any sum or sums of money not exceeding .^/''j'/ thousand dollars." * * * * 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL G07 

The " pledges " were : 

'* The proceeds of the sales of lands granted by Congress to aid in the construction of 
said canal, together with the interest money accruing thereon, llie revenues derived from 
the use of the canal and accruing to the Territory or State of Wisconsin, the whole or so 
much of the canal as shall belong to, or by law vest in the said Territory or State." 

The words "pledges hereinafter provided"' were inserted 
in lieu of the words "credit of the Territory of Wisconsin," 
which were in the bill as introduced. 

The words "and the faith of the Territory" in the bill as 
introduced following the other "pledges" above quoted, were 
stricken out in the Council on motion. 

These amendments, reducing the amount to be borrowed 
from $500,000 to $50,000, and withholding the credit and faith 
of the Territory, were the most important. 

Instead of three "commissioners of appraisal" in addition 
to the register and receiver, as proposed by Mr, Kilbourn's 
bill, the act provided that — 

"There shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of 
the Council, three commissioners to be styJed the Board of Canal Commissioners, one of 
whom shall be designated as the acting commissioner, one as register and one as receiver-" 
* * * "The register and receiver shall each receive for their services an 

annual salary of one thousand dollars, and the acting commissioner an annual salary of 
twelve hundred dollars." 

The board of canal commissioners were to make a reeris- 
try of the occupied lands, and an appraisal of the other 
lands, as the "commissioners of appraisal" were by the 
KiLBOURN bill required to do, but the act as passed extended 
the time to which the making of improvements should re- 
late from the 1st day of December, 1838, as provided in the 
KiLBOURN bill, to the 1st day of February, 1839. It also in- 
cluded among the tracts which might be registered as 
"occupied," — 

"Any quarter or fractional quarter section, claimed agreeably to the rules of the 
coimtry adjoining a quarter or fractional quarter of an even numbered section, on both or 
either of which Improvements by cultivation have been made to the amount of three 
acres, or on which a mill had been built prior to the 1st day of February, 1839." 

The rule of minimum valuations, varying from $2.50 to 
$10 per acre, according to the distance of the tract from the 
canal and other circumstances, contained in the Kilbourx 
bill, was not retained in the act as passed. 

The plan proposed by the canal company in the Kilbourn 
bill, of extending the time for the sale of the lands, except 
the " occupied " lands, through a series of years from 1839 
to 1845, was not adopted. 



G08 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN, 

The twenty-second section of this act contained a provi- 
sion which the canal company regarded as injurious to the 
progress of the work, which was as follows : 

" No canal commissioner, director or stockholder of the canal company, or engineer em- 
ployed on said canal shall purchase or be interested iu the purchase of any of the lands 
authorized to he sold by virtue of any of the provisions of this act, nor shall be interested 
in any contract for the construction of any portion of the canal, or furnishing materials 
therefor." 

Another act was passed, approved February 20, 1839, by 
which the directors were authorized to sell at public sale 
any shares of stock in the company, upon which assess- 
ments were not paid, and the purchaser of any share at any 
public sale should be liable to pay any assessment that 
might thereafter become due. Stockholders were by the 
act authorized to vote by proxy, and the directors were au- 
thorized to fill vacancies in the board. This act was ac- 
cepted by a vote of the directors May 1, 1839. 

On the 4th of March, the Governor, by and with the advice 
and consent of the Council, made the following appoint- 
ments: 

Register — Hans Crocker. 

Receiver — John H. Tweedy. 

Acting Commissioner — Lemuel W. Weeks. 

Chief Engineer — Alexander M. Mitchell. 

In the month of March an engineer party was again or- 
ganized by the canal company and a final location of the 
line was completed, and a report submitted to the directors 
on the Gth day of May. 

It is impossible to give an accurate description of the line 
of this location, except by a delineation on a map, and only 
an approximate one will be attempted. 

The canal was to unite with the Milwaukee River on its 
right bank, a very short distance above where Chestnut 
street came to the river. From thence a canal was to be 
constructed along the right bank of the river for a distance 
of about one mile, to where a dam and lock were to be con- 
structed, and the water in the river raised thereby about 
ten feet. This dam was designed to create slackwater nav- 
igation in the river for several miles above, and furnish an 
adequate supply of water below, not only for the uses of 
canal navigation, but for the numerous water powers be- 
tween the canal and the river. The location contemplated 
the use of the slack water of the river in lieu of the canal 



MILWAUKEE AND EOCK RIVER CANAL. C09 

to a point in section 5, town 7, range 22, a distance of about 
four miles, where it was proposed to leave the river and 
construct a canal running a little north of west, through the 
town of Granville, to the Menomonee River, at a point in 
section 30, town 8, range 20, near the southeast corner of 
the town of Germantown, thence southwesterly in the town 
of Menomonee to the Pishtaka (Fox) River, in section 29, 
town 8, range 20; thence to Weavers Run, in the town of 
Lisbon, at section 35, town 8, range 19, From Weaver's Run 
the location passed westerly through the town of Lisbon, in 
which town the summit was reached. 

The Territorial Engineer (Mr. A. M. Mitchell) in his re- 
port to the Governor in October, 1839, says — 

"Within two miles of the suinmitis the beginning: of a chain of lakes, presenting almost 
a connection of waters, easily made navigable to the eastern bend of Rock River, a dis- 
tance of twelve or fifteen miles." * * * "From La'Belle Lake to Rock River is 
a vallej'' which appears to have been designed to miite the two." 

The location of the canal from the summit to the outlet of 
La'Belle Lake passed through parts of the towns of Lisbon, 
Merton, Delafield and Oconomowoc. After leaving the 
valley of La'Belle Lake it passed through the towns of 
Summit and Concord, through which last town the location 
took a southwesterly course to Johnson's Creek, in section 
27, township 7, range 15, in the town of Farmington, and 
thence pursuing a westerly course bearing south for a dis- 
tance of about six miles it intersected Rock River at a point 
which was designated Cinniscippi, between Jefferson and 
Bellville. 

This location was adopted by the board of directors on 
the 6th of May, and plats of the line were immediately for- 
warded to the Governor and to the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office, and the lands granted to the Territory 
were designated and set off by the commissioner agreeably 
to the act of Congress, being the alternate sections, num- 
bered with odd numbers, ten miles wide, and extending from 
Lake Michigan to Rock River 

The whole number of acres thus designated and set off by 
the commissioner was 139,190.91. 

The next session of the Legislative Assembly convened 
at Madison December 2, 1839. 

On the 9th day of December the report of the board of 
canal commissioners was presented to the Council, through 
the President. 
39 



610 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The report states that the occupied and unproved lands 
registered as contemplated by the law of the previous ses- 
sion were 43,077.10 acres. 

The sale of these registered lands was commenced on the 
fourth Monday of June, and one tract was sold, when, as no 
returns had been received of the designation of the canal 
lands, the sale was adjourned until the 2d day of July. 

On the 2d July, the complete returns having been re- 
ceived by the commissioners, they proceeded with the sale, 
and within three days all registered land was sold, except 
240 acres, at the minimum price of $2.50 per acre. 

The report states: 

The number of acres sold amounted to $43, 447 10 

Total value at S;3.50 per acre 108, 617 75 

Ten per tent, re quired to be paid at the time of sale was 10, 801 77 

Total amount of receipts 12, 337 27 

In some instances more than ten per cent, was paid, which 
increased the total amount of receipts by $1,475.50 over the 
ten per cent, required to be paid at the time of sale. 

The amount of lands granted, after deducting the number 
of acres sold was 95, 743.81, subject to the subsequent action 
of the Legislature. 

In relation to the " settlers " and the registered land, the 
report says : 

" It is with great satisfaction that the undersigned have it in their power to inform you, 
that the first and immediate object of the canal law, to-wit: the protection of the settlers 
upon the canal lands, has been happily accomplished, beyond even the most sanguine 
hopes of the settlers tiiemselves." 

" We believe," the report continues, " that in no instance has a meritorious settler been 
shut out of the equity of any provisions of the act or suffered by the competition of others 
at the sale." 

The Governor in his annual message, delivered Decem- 
ber 3d, says that by the act approved February 26, 1839 

" The Governor was authorized to borrow the sum of $50,000. Accordingly bonds were 
issued to that amount on the 5th of August last, executed by me in the name of the Terri- 
tory, and under authority of an act of Congress, for one thousand dollars each, bearing 
an interest of six per cent, per annum, payable twenty years thereafter. 

" John H. Tweedy, Esq., was appointed the agent of the Territory to make sale of the 

I-JOI'ICJC ■'ij' "T H- •(• "{■ ^ •!• •(• ^ •(• -P •Hip 

" Mr. Tweedy, in his report to me on this subject, states that stocks of every nature 
were depressed to a lower point than they had at any time been for many years, not ex- 
cepting the panic of 1837. The seven per cent, stocks of the city of New York were 
selling at 95; New York State Bonds— four per cent. — at 7^J4and the bonds of most 
of the other States, least encumbered with debt, were totally unsalable. Money was 
commanding three times the ordinary interest in all the larger cities and in the smaller 
places of business." 



MILWAUKEE AND KOC.^K RIVER CANAL. 611 

The Governor in his message further says : 

"In the report of the chief engineer, made in obedience to the fifteenth section of the 
act of February 20, 188!), the estimated coat of the construction of the canal is given at 
less than twelve hundred thousand dollars." 

The board of comniissioners in tlieir report say : 

"At the time of the passnge of the law no difficulty was anticipated in negotiating the 
loan authorized by the Legislature. 

" It is a source of regret that unfortunate circumstances in the matter of the location of 
the canal prevented an effort being made to sell the bonds of the Territory before the at- 
tempt became hopeless. Had the effort been made in April, Jlay or June, we have reason 
to believe that it would have been attended with success. 

■'The bonds executed by the Governor and Secretary are now in the custody of the Re- 
ceiver and can be used again should another attempt be authorized or deemed ex- 
pedient." 

The report further says: 

" The establistiment at present superintending the interests of the Territory in the con- 
struction of the canal, is in many respects liable to serious objections and ought to be re- 
organized if continued at all, on a reduced and more economical scale. The salaries of the 
several officers should be redticed to a fair compensation for actual services rendered and 
required. The provision which would best meet every exigency would be to fix the com- 
pensation of the Register and Receiver, or any officer that may be substituted in their 
places, a percentage on the receipts and disbursements, and fees for recording and other 
services, and that of the acting commissioner by a per diem allowance for actual ser- 
vices." 

The attention of the Legislature was called by the re- 
port — 

'To the defect of the canal law, in not making any provisions for the payment of the sal- 
aries of the oflicers under that law." * * * 

" The Receiver therefore has not felt himself authorized to part with any of the funds 
in his hands for that purpose, without special instruction from the Legislature, however 
obvious It may be that it was the intention of that body that such funds should and must be 
so applied in the absence of any loan." 

The Governor, in his annual message before referred to, 
says: 

" I would recommend to the Legislative Assembly the propriety of so amending the act 
as to authorize the payment of the salaries of the chief engineer and commissioners of the 
canal out of the proceeds of the sales of the canal lands." 

The message of the Governor suggests — 

" The propriety of memorializing Congress to place the occupants of the alternate sec- 
tions (the even numbered sections) in the same situation as other settlers, on the public 
domain, by allowing them the right of pre-emption, and permitting them to enter their 
lands at the minimum price of the public lands." 

A memorial was adopted by the Legislature praying 
Congress: 

"To grant a pre-emption right at $1.23 per acre, to all those who had settled on tho 
alternate sections previously to the passage of the law by which those lands were re- 
served to the United States. " 



G12 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

On the 9th of December, a memorial adopted by the canal 
company on the 25th of November, was presented in the 
House of Representatives. The memorial represented that 
the 22d section of the act of the last session, which has been 
quoted, was in violation of the rights of the company, in- 
jurious to the progress of the work and to the bests inter- 
ests of the country. That it presented a bar to subscriptions 
to the stock of the company by depriving stockholders of 
the ordinary rights of citizens in the purchase of land and 
in furnishing material and supplies for the canal. 

The memorial said: 

" Some of our most enterprising citizens have been restrained from taking the stock of the 
company who were anxious to do so, for the reason that if the work should be commenced, 
they wished to take and be interested in contracts. Many of our citizens would be wilhng 
to take a few shares each, and pay tlie amount of such shares by constructing portions of 
tlie canal, and in this way give impetus to a work in which they are all alike interested, 
but they dare not do this lest they should be cut off from the privilege of taking other con- 
tracts in the further progress of the work, from the circumstance of their holding stock in 
the company." 

The memorialists stated that they were clearly of the 
opinion that the effect of this provision would be to give a 
death-blow to the canal, and if the design had been (which 
they did not believe) to defeat it entirely, a more effectual 
method could not have been adopted. 

They stated that many of the settlers on the canal lands, 
on which they had extensi^^e improvements, had before the 
act containing this restrictive clause was passed, subscribed 
for stock in the company, who, in order to be entitled to pur- 
chase their lands, had been compelled to sell their stock. 

They further stated that by the act of congress making 
the grant, the land was required to be sold to the " highest 
bidder," and ask if a stockholder should be the " highest 
bidder," would it be competent for the legislature or any of- 
ficer to say that such " highest bidder " should not have the 
land? Would the sale be a legal one if the Register and 
Receiver were to strike it off to a lower bidder? 

The memorialists therefore prayed the Legislature to re- 
peal so much of the 22d section of the act as is contained 
in the foregoing extract. 

A considerable portion of the memorial was devoted to 
showing that a spirit of hostility existed in certain quar- 
ters to the canal which assumed the form of attacks upon 
the canal company. The memorial sets forth the nature of 
these attacks, and undertakes to meet them and to demon- 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. G13 

strate that they have no foundation in fact, or in anj^ but 
unworthy motives, and as an evidence of the good faith of 
the company says: 

"Our great and paramount object is to see the cannl iu successful o])eration, and we 
would williuglj- forego all the dh-ect advantages to result to us growing out of the charter, 
if by so doing we could have the assurance of its speedy and certain comjiletion by any 
other means. Let us but have the full assurance that the canal can and will be com- 
pleted by any other means, and we will gladly la3- down our charter at the feet of the 
Legislature. We ask no rights or privileges which are not open to the people of the whole 
Territory, and we invite the cooperation of the people of every section to come forward 
and invest their money and share equally in the benefits to be derived from the work, and we 
extend this invitation to those who have assailed us most violently and bitterly." 

The memorial represented that the salaries of the board 
of canal commissioners (register, receiver and acting com- 
missioner) and of the chief engineer were extravagantly 
higli, and proposed that the compensation of the register 
and receiver be one per centum to each on all moneys by 
them received, and one per centum on all moneys paid out, 
and fees for other special duties. That the compensation of 
the acting commissioner should be three dollars per day for 
such time as was devoted to the discharge of his duties. 

"If these prices were this year paid (the memorial states) instead of the salaries allowed 
by law, the amount chargable to the canal fund for commissioneis' salaries would be about 
S2C0 instead of $.3,200, making a saving of $3,940, without any detriment to the public 
service.'' 

The salary of the chief engineer was fixed by the law at 
$3,000 annually, which the memorialists think was $1,000 too 
much. Upon that subject they say: 

"A still further reduction might have been secured, and may in the future be made, by 
merging the Territorial engineer and the Comi)any engineer in one " * * * 

"IE that system were adopted here, it is believed that the commissioners on the part of the 
Territory, and the directors on the part of the company, would be able to agree in the ap- 
pointment of an engineer, and it will be apparent to every one that one engineei- is sufficient 
to conduct the affairs of a canal sixty miles in length as well as a greater number." 
***** *** ***** 

" In case of the commissioners and directors so agreeing the salary could be paid, one 
moiety by the Territory and the other by the Canal Company; consequently if a competent 
engineer can be employed for S"-,000 per annum only Sl,000 could be chargeable to the canal 
fund instead of $3,000 as in the present arrangement. ***** 

" The present year's expense for commissioners and engineer, amounts t()$(),a00, without 
there having been expended one dollar cf public funds for the promotion of the canal. The 
only official duties which have been porfoi-mcd by theconimissioners.being to dispose of the 
occupied lands, the receipts from which are understood to be about $1.3,0C0 ($12,337.37 by 
their report), and the only professional duties discharged being to express his opinion in 
vegard to the location of the canal line and its cost of construction." 



614 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

In reference to the work on the canal the memorial 
states: 

" In June a letting of jobs took place under the direction of the company, at which sev- 
eral sections of the canal were put under contract. One of the contractors, Mr. Pettibone, 
has commenced operations and has notified the board of directors that he is willing to con- 
tinue his operations through the winter on a portion of the worlc which can be done with 
much better effect at that season than any other, and he will advance his own means for 
that purpose to be remunerated whenever the Company shall obtain funds to meet it, or 
whenever a loan shall be obtained by the Territory applicable to that purpose. These jobs 
have been let on favorable terms and we feel a confidence in their completion within a year 
or eighteen months; so far as to make the water power at this place available, even if the 
times remain unfavorable for a loan." #***#** 

" Your memorialists would further respectfvdly represent that the present amount of 
population and the increased productions of the country afford facilities for the perform- 
ance of labor, which would jiistify the expenditure within the next year of at least $100,000. 
This sum could be economically and beneficially expended, and should the condition of the 
money affairs of the country be such as to enable the Territory to effect a loan to that 
amount, we feel justified in expressing the opinion that good policy would dictate the meas- 
ure. This would require an additional appropriation of $50,000, which could be negotiated 
with the present bonds for §50,000." 

Immediately after this memorial was introduced, it was, 
on motion of Mr. Wells of Milwaukee, laid on the table, 
and he offered the following resolutions, which were imme- 
diately adopted: 

''''Resolved, That the officers of the Milwaukee and Eock River Canal Company be re- 
quested to report to this House as soon as may be, upon the following points: 

" First. That the President state under oath, the quantity of land given by individuals, in 
consideration of the location and termination of said canal, at different points upon the 
route, to whom and to whose benefit said lands were donated. 

" Second. That the secretary of said company state on oath the amount of capital stock 
taken, the amount actually paid in, by whom it was taken, the names of the present holders, 
and the amounts held by each; also state on oath the number of offices created by said com- 
pany, by whom held, and the compensation allowed to each of said officers and to each 
member of said company during the past year. 

" Third. That the treasurer of said company state on oath the amount and kind of money 
actually paid and now in his hands. 

"Resolved, That the chief clerk transmit a copy of these resolutions to each of said 
officers. 

On the 28th of December the Speaker laid before the 
House a communication from Mr. Kilbourn, the president 
of the company, in answer to these resolutions. 

He stated that he was on the eve of his departure for 
Madison when he received the resolutions; that the time 
required to make a detailed statement upon all the points 
requested would be such as probably to defeat the beneficial 
results designed; that the resolutio?iS were, however, laid 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 615 

before the directors, who by resolution authorized the presi- 
dent to give such information generally, touching the 
affairs of the company, as might be desired by the Legisla- 
ture, or by any committee of either house, and to state 
definitely the views of the board on the following points: 

1st. That if desired the company would report annually 
to the Legislature all the facts connected with their opera- 
tions relative to the canal, embracing the points covered by 
the aforesaid resolutions, and such other matters as they 
might deem useful to the public or of interest to the Legis- 
lature. That the company are not required by their charter 
to make such report, and were not requested to do so until 
it was too late for the present session, and had the Legisla- 
ture expressed at an earlier day its desire to receive such a 
report, the company would promptly and voluntarily have 
complied. They had nothing to conceal, and would freely 
at all times, wiien desired, exhibit their books and transac- 
tions to the Legislature, to the canal commissioners, or to 
the public. 

2d. That so long as the company exists in their corporate 
capacity, and bear a part in the prosecution of the canal, 
they conceive themselves entitled to exercise all the rights 
and privileges conferred by the act of incorporation. 

3d. That the company will at any time surrender into 
the hands of the Territory all the privileges conferred by 
the charter, and all property purchased by or donated to the 
company, or to any person on behalf of the company, on 
condition that they can be assured of the vigorous prosecu- 
tion and early completion of the canal by the Territory. 

4th. That during the two years since the formation of the 
company their expenditures have been but about $8,000. 
This includes all the expenses of the company, in running 
the first experimental levels, the subsequent random levels, 
and the final survey of location and the obtaining the grant 
of land. 

"It was not the province of the President (he said) to institute a comparison between 
this expenditure of the company for two years past, and the amount of business transacted 
by them, with the territorial expenditui-es of the last year, and the necessarily small 
amount of busines transacted by Its oflicers in f ui-therance of its worlv. Such a comparison 
will readily be made by the Legislature, who are in possession of all the material facts, 
and might be considered invidious in me." 

On motion of Mr. Billings, of low^a county, a resolution 
was adopted by the House of Representatives on the 26th 
December: 



G16 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN 

" That the President of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company be requested to 
inform the House upon what terms said eompauy wiU surrender to the Territory the 
privileges conferred upon them by the act of incorporation." 

In response to this resolution the President of the com- 
pany, on the 28th December, submitted the following propo- 
sitions: 

"First. Satisfactory assurance to be given that the work will be commenced by the 
Territory as soon as the money affairs of the country will enable a loan to be effected, or if 
such loan cannot be obtained before September next, that the funds then on hand and 
thereafter accruing will be ciuTently applied to the work, from that time until a loan can 
be effected, said fimds to be applied to the performance of work on the jobs now under 
contract, and for which the company are held liable to the contractors. 

"Second. The company will transfer to the Territory all lands and contracts for lands 
held by the company, or by others on behalf of the company, subject to the conditions 
of the original contracts between the grantors and the company, the Territory to exoner- 
ate the company from all liabilities under or growing out of such contracts. 

"Third. That no material alteration be made in the line of the canal, as now located, 
without the concurrence of the company." 

" Fourth. That an amount of work be performed on the canal from and after the first loan 
can be obtained equal to $50,000 or upwards each year, and the canal be completed in ten 
j-ears from the passage of the act of grant by congress. 

" Fifth. That the Territory pay to the company in the manner prescribed in the charter, 
the amount which they have expended prior to the time of transfer." 

Appended to each of the propositions w as a statement of 
its object and the reasons for it, and the response contained 
a statement of the estimated cost of the work, and con- 
cluded as follows: 

" In estimating this work, the prices affixed to each item are believed to be from twenty 
to twenty-five per cent, above what they will actually cost, in order to render the estimates 
entirely safe, and yet the aggregate estimate falls a little short of a million of dollars, 
after adding ten per cent, for incidental expenses. The estimates of the company in de- 
tail are subject to the inspection of the Legislature whenever desired. 

" I am clearli' satisfied that these estimates will be found to cover the entire cost, and 
would not hesitate to enter into contract at any time to perform the work at the prices es- 
timated. Should the I.iegislature take the work off the hands of the company, I will as an 
individual, if desired, enter into a contract to that effect, and perform the work in ad- 
vance of the payments monthly," 

On motion of Mr. Martin, of Brown county, it was re- 
solved by the Council on the 30th December 

" That the President of the Milwaukee and Rock River Canal Company be requested to 
lay before the Council the plans and estimates of the cost of construction of the said canal 
and such other information as he may deem proper to submit." 

In compliance with this resolution, the President on the 
same day submitted the detailed estimates of the cost of 
constructing the canal, which he stated had been revised by 
the Territorial Engineer, and approved by him. 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 617 

111 making the estimates, the whole work was divided 
into sixty-one sections of various lengths from a half mile 
to two miles or more, but usually about one mile long, and 
the estimated cost of each section given under the different 
heads of grubbing, excavation, embankment, cost of locks, 
dams and culverts, to which was added an estimate for 
three feeders. The total estimates were $901,043.31, to which 
was added ten per cent, for contingencies, making a total 
of $991,148.73. 

In the House a committee of one from each election dis- 
trict was on the 20th of December appointed to consider the 
several matters before the House relating to the canal and 
the canal company. 

On the 28th of December, the committee submitted the 
following report : 

" That after having the matter under consideration, your committee deem it inexpedient 
to attempt to prosecute the work on the canal at present for the following reasons : 

"First. The embarrassed state of the currency of the United States your committee be- 
lieve would render it difficult, if not impossible for the Territory to effect a loan on its 
bonds without selling them at a discount. 

" Second. Your committee are of the opinion that to go on and expend the proceeds of the 
lands granted by Congress to aid in the construction of said canal, would be placing the 
Territory in a situation either to be liable to the general government for the repayment of 
the money or to incur a much heavier debt for the completion of said work, which would 
be useless without being finished. 

"Third. Your conimittee did not deem satisfactory the answers of the president of the 
canal company to the resolution of this House, calling on the officers of said company for 
an exposition of their affairs, that the Territory might judge as to the propriety of prose- 
cuting said work in connection with said company. 

" Fourth. That in the location of said canal your committee believe that great injus- 
tice was done to some of the settlers living on the government lands, by locating said 
canal and having the lands selected and sold without the acceptance of the Territorial 
engineer, and after this having been done, a new location made by the said company, by 
which a number of occupants on said lands were thrown from six to eight miles from the 
line of said canal, and still compt-Ued to i)ay $3.50 per aero for their lands and not entitled 
to the right of pre-emption. 

" Fifth. Your committee find a proposition in the communication from the president of 
the canal company to this House, that they (the company) would surrender their charter 
to the Territory, on conditions that they can be assured that the Territory will prosecute 
and complete thi- work. 

" Your committee believe that it would be a very improper course for the Legislature 
to take to bind the Territory to perform certain things with her own means. 

" Your committee deem it unnecessary to give any further reasons, believing that the 
above are sufficient, and be^ le ive to report the accompanying bill for the consideration 
of the House." 

This bill, entitled "A bill to amend an act entitled 'An 
act to provide for aiding in the construction of the Mil- 



618 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

waukee and Rock River canal/ approved February 26, 
1839, and for other purposes," provided for the unqualified 
repeal of the act of February 2('., 1839, except sections 10, 11, 
12 and 13, which provided for the issuing of patents and 
giving of mortgages for lands sold. It contemplated the 
abandonment of the construction of the canal, and the 
withdrawal and cancellation of the bonds authorized by 
the act of 1839 to be issued. 

When the bill came up for consideration in the House, 
amendments were proposed contemplating an opposite 
policy, by applying to the construction of the canal the 
proceeds of the sales of the lands, in case a loan should not 
be effected. The amendments were adopted by a vote of 
15 to 11, the eight members of the committee which reported 
the bill being equally divided. 

The bill as it was amended in the House finally passed 
the Council, and on the 11th of January, 1840, became a law. 

The main features of this law were: 

In section 1, That the compensation of the register and 
receiver should be a percentage on the amount of money 
received by them, and the acting commissioner and en- 
gineer should receive a per diem compensation, instead of 
the salaries which those officers had previously received, 
and the maximum pay of the register and receiver was to 
be reduced to $300 per annum. 

Section 2 authorized the Governor to pay out of the canal 
fund the back salary of these officers. 

Section 3 provided that the canal commissioners should 
be elected by joint ballot of the two houses, instead of being 
appointed by the Governor and Council. 

Section 4 enacted that in case a loan should not be effected 
by the first day of September, the money of the canal fund 
should be applied to the construction of the canal, in the 
same m.anner that money obtained by loan was authorized 
by law to be applied, but when a loan should be effected, 
all moneys in the canal fund should be applied to the pay- 
ment of interest and the liquidation of the loan, as pre- 
scribed by the act of 1839. 

Section 5 regulated the details of payments. 

Section (i related to reports of the canal company to the 
Legislature. Under this law the Legislature made the fol- 
lowing elections: 

George H. Walker, Acting Commissioner. 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 019 

John Hustis, Register. 

John H. Tweedy, Receiver. 

The Governor appointed 

I. A. Lapham, Chief Engineer. 

On the 14th of March Gov. Dodge appohited Byron Kil- 
BOURN agent in behalf of the Territory to negotiate the 
canal loan of $50,000 authorized by the act of February i^G, 
18o9, and delivered the bonds to him and appointed the 
Bank of America, in the city of New York, as the deposi- 
tory of the loan. 

On the 21st of April Mr. Kilbourn communicated to the 
Governor a proposition from S. Higginbotham to take 
$25,000 of the loan at par on condition that four years inter- 
est was paid in advance, and at the same time he communi- 
cated a resolution adopted by the canal company on the 
20th of April, that the company would pay to the Territory 
as a gratuity, if the loan should be effected on these terms: 

"An amount equal to six per cent, interest on all installments of interest which shall be 
so paid prior to the time when the same would become due in semi-ar.nual payments on 
said loan, whereby the said loan will be secured to the Territorj' at 'the par or nominal 
value or amount thereof," in accordance with the terms of the act without subjecting the 
Territory to anj- loss or deduction for interest so paid in advance." 

In his letter to the Governor, Mr. Kilbourn advised the 
acceptance of the proposition of Mr. Higginbotham for the 
reasons thai the Territory had the money on hand to pay 
the interest in advance and it was lying entirel}^ useless to 
the Territory, and by making this diposition of it a fund 
might be obtained for active use, which would confer a very 
essential benefit on the Territory. 

"But," he said, "as it might leave room for those who are disposed to cavil at anything 
to endeavor to make it appear that the loan was obtained as much below the 'par or 
nominal value or amount thereof as the use of the interest money would be worth so paid 
in advance," * * * |j,g Canal Company "propose to pay to the Territory 

six per cent, on the amount so advanced, which will in fact amount to a, premium on the 
bonds to that amount more than the Territory would receive if the canal fund should be 
permitted to lie dormant as at present." 

The Governor, in his reply to the letter of the loan agent, 
said: 

" I do not think I have any discretionary powers that would authorize me in drawing a 
draft on the receiver of the canal fund, for the interest of $-5,000 fvr the term of four 
years in advance. He might refuse the payment of an^- amount not authorized by the ex- 
isting laws. And any proposition of the board of directors, which they may deem advan- 
tageous for the prosecution of the work of the canal, it appears to me belongs entirely to 
the Legislative Assembly of the Territory, who, I hava no doubt would readily agree to 
the passage of such a loan as would meet the provisions contained in the resolutions of 
the board of directors of the 20th ultimo. It would certainly have my concurrence." 



620 HISTOEY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

The correspondence was laid before the Legislative As- 
sembly, at an extra session held on the first Monday of Au- 
gust, but no action was taken upon the subject, nor was 
anything done at that session relative to the canal, or the 
loan in aid of its completion. 

No part of the authorized loan of $50,000 was negotiated 
during the year 1840. 

A loan not having been effected by the first day of Sep- 
tember, the money belonging to the canal fund, became, by 
the act of January 11, 1840, applicable to the construction 
of the canal. 

Mr. KiLBOURN, agent to negotiate the loan, wrote to the 
Governor on November 19th, from Ohio, that he had 

" Opened negotiations with several capitalists, with a view of obtaining said loan. Owing, 
however, to the peculiar state of the money market, and the depressed condition of 
Jhe business affairs of the country, I have not thus far (he said) been able to accomplish 
>hat object." 

The agent also suggested an amendment of the act 
authorizing the loan, by increasing the interest to seven per 
cent., and permitting the money to be received at any specie 
paying bank wherever it would best suit the convenience of 
the parties taking up the loan. He thought a speedy nego- 
tiation of the loan could be made with these two modifica- 
tions of the law. 

The next annual session of the Legislative Assembly was 
held on the first Monday (7th day) of December, 1840. 

On the 10th the Speaker laid before the House the annual 
report of the canal company, and on the loth Mr. Barber 
presented the report of the canal commissioners. 

An extra number of both reports was ordered to be 
printed, and both referred to a select committee — Messrs. 
Barber, Ray and Gray. 

Both reports recommended the adoption of the two modi- 
fications of the law authorizing the loan suggested by the 
loan agent. 

Both concurred also in recommending the substitution of 
wooden locks in place of stone, with some exceptions. 

The report of the canal company presented a view of its 
operations during the year, and that of the canal commis- 
sioners exhibited a full account of their official actions for 
the same time. They both showed harmonious co-operation, 
and that of the commissioners presented a roseate view of 
the condition and prospects of the canal. 



MILAVAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 621 

It showed that the amount o£ work xim'.er contract was $25, 153 

The amount of work done 3, 4'JO 

The amount paid for work 3, 141 

The amount to be paid 23,017 

It states 

"That tlie contract prices of that juirtion of the work now in i)rof^ress are forty per 
cent, below the original estimates of the same work, and upon which the estimates of the 
entire cost of the canal were based." 

It contained an estimate of the reduced price of the whole 
work on the hypothesis that a corresponding difference 
should be found between the estimates and contracts. It 
adopted 25 per cent, as a safer calculation than 40, of the 
actual difference. 

The original estimates of the total cost were $0!)1 , 148 73 

A difference of 25 per cent, would he »17, 787 18 

The actual estimated cost $743, 301 55 

It estimated that the saving- by substituting wooden locks 
for stone would be $120,000, and that the estimate of 823,700 
for the construction of a tow path along the Milwaukee 
River from the point where the canal connects with the 
river to its mouth, and of 81,295 for a pier at the harbor 
might be entirely dispensed with or materially diminished. 
These reductions of cost amount to $145,055 and would re- 
duce the total cost of the canal to a sum below $000,000. 

In concluding the report the commissioners say: 

" To the Territory, the path of duty and policy is clearly pointed out. Every consider- 
ation of her own interest, or lier duties to the people, or justice to the settlers, should 
prompt her to embrace the cause of the canal with her whole soid and energy. What 
liability she can incur, she has already incurred. Rec^-de she cannot. To advance easy 
and safe. Delay and vacillation alone are difficult and dangerous. Doing as she will do, 
lier whole duty, she will in a few short years, without a dollar of debt contracted, or a, 
dollar of liability assumed, or if so, only when amply secured, have achieved an enter- 
prise which will enrich her with constant, copious streams of wealth, and slie 1 an imper- 
ishable glori" on the rising State of Wisconsin." 

On the 14th of January, Mr. Barber, from the select com- 
mittee to which the various reports had been referred, sub- 
mitted a report, which coincided with the views expressed 
in the report of the canal commissioners, and embodied them 
in a bill, which passed the House without a division, and 
the Council by a vote of 11 to 2, and having been approved 
by the Governor on the 12th of February, became a law on 
that day. 

The material provisions of this law were: 

That in the construction of the locks on the canal it 
should be lawful to substitute wood instead of stone, when- 



622 HISTORY OF THE TEERITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

ever, in the opinion of the chief engineer, approved by the 
canal commissioners, such substitution shall be deemed ex- 
pedient. 

That the Governor of the Territory be authorized to exe- 
cute and issue bonds in the name of the Territory, for any 
sum not exceeding $100,000, bearing an interest of seven per 
cent, per annum, payable semi-annually; provided, that the 
moneys might be deposited in any sound specie-paying 
banks, which shall be selected by the canal commissioners 
and the Governor of the Territory, subject to the draft of 
the receiver of the canal funds, whenever the same may be 
required for expenditures on the canal. 

The act further provided that the bonds previously issued 
for $50,000, which should not have been negotiated should be 
recalled, and if any of them had been sold, then the new 
bonds should be issued to such an amount only as should 
with the loan thus effected be equal to the sum of $100,000. 

This act also contained provisions for the sale of such of 
the unsold canal lands as were wanted for immediate occu- 
pation and improvement, and all the details requisite to give 
-effect to such provisions. 

It made it the duty of the acting commissioner to protect 
from trespass and waste all timber on any of the canal 
lands. 

Another act approved December 24, 1840, postponed the 
collection of the semi-annual interest until the Legislature 
should provide by law for its collection, and a later act ap- 
proved February 19, 1841, made it the duty of the canal 
commissioners, whenever any loan should be negotiated, so 
to fix the time when payment of interest should be made as 
to meet the interest semi-annually, accruing on such loan 
and to give three months' notice thereof by newspaper pub- 
lication. 

On the 9th of February the canal commissioners were 
elected by joint ballot of the two houses. 

Messrs. Walker, Hustis and Tweedy were re-elected to 
the offices of acting commissioner, register and receiver 
respectively. 

The act of February 26, 1839, by the twentieth section of 
which the Governor was authorized to appoint agents for 
obtaining loans, was specially recognized as being in force, 
and consequently the authority of the Governor to appoint 



MILAVAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 623 

agents to negotiate the bonds for $100,000, authorized to be 
issued by the act of February 13, 1841, remained in force. 

Governor Dodge, acting upon this construction of his 
authority, on the 13th of May, 1841, renewed the appoint- 
ment of Mr. KiLBOURN as loan agent and authorized him 

"Upon receiving from any person or persons a certificate of the cashier of eitlur of tlie 
safety fund banks in the State of New York, or any specie payiug bank or banks that he or 
they have deposited with the said cashier any specified amount of money, subject to the 
order of the receiver of the canal funds as mentioned m the last aforesaid act (of Fel)ruary 
12, 1841), to deliver over to such person or persons so many of the said certificates (bonds), 
aforesaid, as shall not exceed in amount the sum so deposited.'' 

During the summer of 1841 Gov. Dodge was removed 
from the office of Governor by President Tyler, and James 
D. Doty appointed his successor. 

On the 1st day of September, 1841, Governor Doty ad- 
dressed a communication to Mr. Kilbourn at Milwaukee, 
he then being in the state of New York or Ohio, notifying 
him that all authority as loan agent conferred upon him 
by Governor Dodge was "revoked and annulled."' 

On the next day (September 2d) notice was — 

" Given to the public that Byron Kilbouhn, Esq., of Milwaukee, is not authorized to sell 
or otherwise dispose of any bonds or certificates of stock made by the late executive of the 
Territoiy of Wisconsin, in virtue of the provisions of the act entitled 'an act supple- 
mentary to the several acts relating to the Milwaukee and Rock River canal,' for the sum 
of one thousand dollars each, and bearing date the 15th day of March, A. D. 1811, as no 
authority was given by said act or any other act, to said Kilboukn to negotiate a loan upon 
the said bonds or certificates of stock. 

Madison, September iJ, 1841. J. D. Doty, Governor." 

Under date of December 27, 1841, Mr. Kilbourn made a 
report of his proceeding under his appointment as the 
accredited agent of the executive. 

The following extract from this report gives, he said, " a 
simple detail of the transactions : " 

" On the 22d of June last I closed negotiations at Cincinnati for loans amoxmting to 
thirty-one thousand dollars, one thousand of which was then deposited, and certificates of 
deposit forwarded to John H. Tweedy. Esq., receiver of canal funds. The remainder of 
$30,000 was to be deposited in monthly installments of $3,000 per month, for the purpose of 
meeting current payments on the canal, as the same fell due at the close of each month, 
beginning on the last day of July, and thereafter on the last day of each month, until the 
whole amount shall be paid. 

" For this purpose bonds were deposited in the Bank of the Ohio Life Insurance and 
Trust Company in Cincinnati to the same amount, with instructions to deliver said bonds 
whenever the funds were deposited as above stated. This arrangement was broken in upon 
by the receiver, in the manner set forth at length in my report to the Legislature, and 
the fund has in consequence thus far remained unproductive to the Territory. The per- 



624 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

son however with whom this negotiation was made (Geo. Reed, Esq.,) has evinced his 
rea liness to perform his part of the agreement, and has bean subjected to some incon- 
venience by the preparation to perform, and the delay which has occurred on the part of 
the Territory by the interposition of the receiver. 

"This loan can still be commanded by the Territory by a compliance on their part in 
the delivery of the bonds, which bonds still remain in suspense, they not having been deliv- 
ered to Mr. Reed, nor subject to be withdrawn by the Territory without a mutual agreement 
to that effect. 

'"On the 4th of August I closed an arrangement for a loan of $5,000 in the city of New 
Yorif, the funds being deposited in the Bank of America. The certificates for this amount 
I have not delivered to the receiver for the reasons set forth in my report to the Legislature. 
But I am ready to pass those funds over to that officer whenever one shall be appointed who 
regards the law rather than his own will as his I'ule of action. 

■'On the 14th of August I closed an arrangement at Oneida for a loan of $15,000, to be 
deposited in the bank of Vernon at any time prior to the 1st of August, 1842, on which the 
first interest falls due on the 20th December, 1S43, and bonds to the same amount were de- 
posited in the bank of V^ernon, subject to this arrangement. The object of tliis loan was 
to furnish a fund for the com.mencement of business at the opening of the next season, 
up to which time it was thought other loans had been or would be made, sufficient to keep 
the work in progress." 

"On the 26th of August I closed an arrangement at Albany for a loan of $5,000, the 
funds to be deposited in the Albany City bank and State bank. The certificates for this 
amount I have not delivered to the receiver for the same reasons I withheld those obtained 
in the city of New York, but am in like manner ready to account for them to any successor 
to the late receiver. 

" These several loans in the aggregate amount to $50,000, and are all the loans which 
have been made. The bonds sold are numbered from 1 to 56 inclusive, and the remainder 
of the bonds (44 in number) numbered from 57 to 100 inclusive, are subject to the disposal 
of the Governor and Legislature." 

The manner in which the arrangements made by the loan 
agent "were broken in upon by the receiver" are stated in 
the following extracts from the report of the loan agent to 
the Legislature. 

" Having completed my arrangements at Cincinnati for the §31,000, 1 wrote Mr. Tweedy 
June 23, notifj^ing him officially of the loan, and stated as clearly as I could find language 
to convey, the nature of the loan, in the following words: ' This loan I have been obliged 
to make in funds bankable at the Life and Trust Company, and consider even that very 
favorable under present circumstances, as that institution, being itself a specie paying 
bank, is very circumspect in the kind of funds it receives. I conceive that this is a discre- 
tion devolving solely on myself, but licpe, as I trust, it will be satisfactory to you and the 
other commissioners. I shall leave to-morrow morning for New York, and shall spare no 
pains in my exertions to negotiate the remaining S69^000, wherever it can be found, and 
hope to find it at some of the eastern banks in their own funds.' " 

************* 

'•Jlr. Lapham was at Cincinnati at the date of my letter, and by him I sent to Mr. 
Tweedy two certificates of deposit amountiilg to $1,000, a part of the loan of $31,000, which, 
as has been before stated, were received by him and paid out for work on the canal." 
************* 

"In reply to my letter of June 28d, I received, while in New York, a letter from Mr. 
Tweedy, dated July 17th, in which he informs me that he ' wrote by the last mail to the 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 625 

President of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, slatinp^ our views at large, and 
desiring Mm to suspend the transfer of the bonds until these objections were removed by 
you, at the same time expressing the belief that you would be able to make a satisfactory 
arrangement after your return from New York.' And soon after the receipt of this letter, 
I received one from Mr. Williams, the president of the bank, stating that he had ' received 
an official letter from John H. Tweedy, Esq., receiver of the canal fund, objecting dis- 
tinctly to your sale of the bonds for current bank notes, or any other than legal currency, 
meaning, of course, coin. He objects to the Trust Company certificates because it is not 
pajable in legal currency, and he says that you are not authorized to sell the bonds for 
any thing but legal currency,' etc." 

" Whatever may be Mr. Tweedy's professions in regard to the canal, I consider his acts 
more strongly indicative of his feelings than his pj-o/essi'ojis." * * * ^: 

" Such feelings, coupled with secret feelings of hostility toward me individually, for 
which I can assign no adequate cause, have in my opinion actuated him in the infliction of 
a public wrong." *********** 

" The difficulties thus interposed have arisen from an assumption of power on the part 
of said conmiissioners to interfere with and dictate tmconditioyiaUy as to the loan and the 
kind of funds which might or might not be received, and to present clearly and under 
Standingly the unjustifiable nature of this assumption, 1 will premise that by the law, the 
duty of making the loan devolves entirely waA exclusively on the Governor alone; either 
by his own act or through means of agents to be by him appointed. (See act of February, 
1839, sections one and twenty, and the act of February, 1841, section 2, quoted in the preced- 
ing part of this report.) Neither of said acts nor any other act, confers any power whatever 
on the commissioners to negotiate any loan, nor are they in any manner authorized to 
direct the Governor as to the manner in which he shall discharge the official duties devolv- 
ing on him by law, or sit in judgment on his acts, whether they be right or wrong. Certain 
duties were to be discharged by the Governor, and if in the discharge of those duties, he 
violates the law he is responsible fo </ie law and to the country for such violation and 
not to the board of canal commissioners, nor are they in any manner responsible for his 
acts. The law has not even named the commissionei-s in connection with the negotiation 
of the loan; neither as associating with them the Governor or otherwise; much less has it 
conferred on them a dictatorial supervisory control and absolute veto over his acts. Yet 
these same commissioners have by their acts assumed that the law has, or ought to have 
conferred on them this power." ********* 

" Tlie law does not require the loan to be made in specie, and it is a fair presumption 
that it did not intend any such thing; but that if nothing better could be done, the territory 
would receive and disburse such funds as are used for the purposes of business throughout 
the western states, internal improvements of every kind included." 

************* 

" Notwithstanding all the difficulties which have had to be thus encountered to effect any 
loan; notwithstanding my loan at Cincinnati was a better one than has been made by any 
•western state for years; notwithstanding the emergency of the case, and the importance 
of the present vigorous prosecution of the work ; notwithstanding the total absence of any 
legal right to interfere with the loan, Mr. Tweedy, backed up by Mr. IIustis, reckless of all 
consequences to the canal, to the rights of the people and the interests of the Territorj-, 
issues his imperial ukase, that the loan shall not be paid out, and that consequently the 
work must stop! " 

************* 

"Out of the amoimt which has been placed in my hands ($11,000), I remitted to the re- 
ceiver $1,000, leaving $10,000 in my hands to be accounted for. This fund I have declined 
40 



626 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

placing In the hands of Mr. Tweedy, being well satisfied that if placed in his possession, he 
would, under some technical plea, refuse to disburse it at all, and thus consummate what 
had been well begun, a total cvertbrow of the whole work. It has not, therefore, been 
placed at his disposal, but in lieu thereof I have individually provided funds and paid on 
certificates of the engineer, a sum which, added to the contingent expenses of negotiating 
the loan and the remittance to discharge interest on the bonds, amounts to $10,041.87, being 
$41.67 more than I have received on the loan. These certificates are the proper vouchers on 
which the law makes it the dutj' of the register to draw his check on the receiver for pay- 
ment, but on demand for such checks Mr. Hdstis, the register, refused to issue them, with- 
out assigning any satisfactory reason. His acts, however, have made the reason so 
palpable that I am at no loss to comprehend it It is simply, as I fully believe, a pre-deter- 
mination on the part of Mr. HrsTis, to aid in sustaining the untenable position of Mr. 
T WEEDY, though it should involve him in an open violation of his duty under the law." 

"Considering the tone of feeling which has been but too clearly exliibited, and which I 
Tnad no doubt would actuate Mr. Tweedy in the disposal of the funds obtained on the loan, 
1 would sooner have rescinded the loan or assumed it myself on behalf of the canal com- 
pany, than permitted it to go into his hands to be locked up as a fund for him and other 
politicians to quarrel about. Even now, if the Territory prefers to stand indebted to the 
■canal company for the same amount, bearing the same rate of interest (as it must do under 
■our charter for all company expenditures) instead of these bonds, I have but little doubt but 
that the company would freely assume the debt. It would, however, be a useless transfer 
of securities, for sooner or later the Territory or State will have the whole cost of the work 
to pay either to the canal company or to those from whom the loans may be made to con- 
.struct it." 

A communication of John H. Tweedy to a select commit- 
tee of the Council, to which was referred the report of the 
loan agent from which the foregoing extracts are taken, 
was called out by that report, and some extracts from the 
communication are submitted, which it is thought present 
the vindication of the conduct of Mr. Tweedy and his asso- 
ciates, so far as that conduct is assailed in the foregoing ex- 
tracts from the report of the loan agent. 

" The personal and political relations between the loan agent and myself, which have 
been brought into view in the report, its many imputations, its lofty defiance and its vitu- 
peration and abuse I shall pass unnoticed. 

************ 

" The report charges in substairce that the receiver has been guilty of an ai-bitrary and 
unwarranted interference with the duties of the loan agent, from motives of secret hostil- 
■ity to the canal, and has by such interference arrested and defeated a loan of $30,000. 
******* 

" The ti'uth of these charges and the justice of the credit or odium imputed to myself 
and others, will clearly appear from a tiue presentment of the facts. 

************ 

" In the certificates or bonds delivered to the agent, the time and place, when and where 
the principal of the loan should be reimbursable, and also the names of the persons to 
whom the same should be due and payable were left in blank, which the said agent was 
(by said letter of authority) authorized to fill in such maimer as should correspond with the 
loan which should be made. 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 627 

" The canal commissioners by letter under their hands and seals in May or June, 1841, 
selected and designated any of the specie paying safety fund banks of New York, the Ohio 
Life Insurance and Trust Company of Cincinnati and two specie paying institutions of 
Cohimbus, as proper banks for the deposit of any moneys borrowed by the loan officer. 

" These are the powers and the only powers given to tlie loan agent. 

"Under this law and these powers the steps to be taken and the conditions to be ob- 
served in the sale of the bonds cannot be mistaken. 

" 1st. The money in equal amount to the bonds to be sold must be deposited. 

"2nd. It must be deposited in a sound specie paying bank. 

" That bank must be one selected or designated by the Governor and Connuissioners. 

" Certilicates of the deijosit of such money in such bank, signed by the cashier thereof, 
must be delivered by the agent. 

" The certificates must be payable to the order of the Receiver of the canal fund. 

" Then, and not till then, the agent is authorized to flU the blanks with the times, places 
and names corresponding with the loan and to deliver the certificates to the person en- 
titled thereto. 

" Here then was a special agent or attorney entrusted with a few simple and limited 
powers so plainly jirtscril ed that they could not be misunderstood. 

" There was no discretion to exercise, no responsibility to assume. He was authorized 
to do a particular act in a particular manner. He could not lawfully transfer, sell or con- 
tract for the sale of any of the bonds in his hands unless in the manner pointed otit by the 
law and his instructions. * ******** 

"Iwi.sh (he attention of the committee to be here directed to two requisitions of the 
law, made part of the instructions of the loan agent, to which reference will be made 
hereafter. 

" First. Tliat the fluids deposited or certificates, should be subject or payable to the ")rder 
of the receiver of the canal fund. 

" By the first provision not a dollar of the loan to be negotiated could be touched, 
controlled or come into the hands of the agent, who was not required to give any bonds 
to faithfully account for money received. 

• That officer had no more authority by law and the instructions under which he acted, 
to take, keep and expend any of the funds for which the bonds might be negotiated, than 
he had to take, keep and expend any other funds of the Territory, without law or 
license. 

" Second. To the kind of funds to be received on the loan. 

" The law declares that the deposit should be made in money. The term moneys unless 
quali fied, can mean nothing but specie, or legal currency or its equivalent. 

*««*«*«****«* 

" The law, in designating the character of the hank, intended to designate the char- 
acter of the funds, and not only intended to secure the receipt of the loan in funds of the 
same character with the bank, to wit: the bills of sound specie paying banks, but also in 
the bills (f such specie paying banks as the Governor and commissioners should select, 
as furnishing the best circulating medium. 

************* 

" The objections of the commissioners to the loan proposed by the agent were clearly 
drawn from their views of the law, and of the authority directing the agent, and may be 
distinctly stated as follows: 

" The funds to be received were not the bills of the specie paying bank selected by the 
comniissionei-s, where the deposit was to be made. 

•' They were not payable in the bills of anj- specie paying bank. 



628 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

" They were not convertible into money at the place of deposit without a serious loss. 
"They were liable to another objection. 

" They were not for practical purposes equivalent, even to depreciated but current 
paper of suspended western banks, whose paper was designed to be excluded by law. 

" These are some of the objections to the proposed loan, honestly entertained by myself 
and the commissioners, and which fixed me in the resolution not to use the funds receivable 
on such loan. 

" This resolution being formed, it became plainly my duty to give notice thereof to the 
parties whose arrangements might be affected thereby, that is to the loan agent, the de- 
pository of the bonds and to the contractors. 

" That duty was performed by my letters to Mr . Williams and to Mr. Kilbourn. 

" The loan agent not being at Cincinnati, I thought it prudent to desire Mr. Williams 
to cause the arrangements for the loan to be, for the time being, suspended, before the 
delivery of the bonds, until the objections to the loan could be avoided by converting the 
funds to be deposited into legal currency or its equivalent. 

" I feared that imless the transfer of the bonds was suspended, the bonds might pass 
beyond the control of the agent. 

" But the letter did ' distinctly object ^ to the kind of funds proposed to be received; did 
* pronounce' such loan to be illegal; did give notice of the determination of the receiver 
not to sanction such loan by acceptance of the funds; did propose by a timely intervention 
to prevent any mischief or embarrassment likely to result from a transfer of the bonds." 

Governor Doty, in his annual message to the Legislative 
Assembly, on the 10th of December, 1841, said: 

•' I am bound to express to you my belief that it is quite impracticable to make a canal, 
upon the route surveyed from Milwaukee to Rock River, which will be of any utility to 
the public; and I am equally positive that under the system as it is now managed the work 
ought not to be continued." 

This portion of the Governor's message was referred in 
the Council to a select committee of five, consisting of 
Messrs. Tweedy, Upham, Martin, Maxwell and Strong, 
and subsequently the report of the loan agent was referred 
to the same committee, and the communication of Mr. 
Tweedy, addressed to that committee, was also considered 
by it. 

On the 3d of Februar}^ this select committee submitted a 
report, which, after giving the history of the conduct of the 
Governor, loan agent and canal commissioners in relation 
to the negotiation of a loan, concluded as follows: 

We feel bound to express the opinion, that the 55 bonds of one thousand dollars each, 
said to have been negotiated by Mr. Kilbourn, have been illegally and fraudulently dis- 
posed of, and that the Territory is not liable for their redemption. A similar objection 
would be valid to the bond for one thousand dollars, issued by Mr. Kilbourn to himself, 
but inasmuch as a part at least of its par value has been received by the proper officer of 
the Territory, we consider his acts in negotiating it to have been thus virtually ratified, and 
that its redemption ought to be provided for. 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. . 629 

" The committee therefore deeniin-? legislative action on this subject to be necessary to 
assert the rights of the Territory, and to take proper measures to jirotect them, bej? leave 
to submit the accompanying resolutions. 

;\I. L. Martin, Chairman. 

The resolutions were afterwards known as the repudiat- 
ing resolutions. 

The report of the committee was not concurred in by Mr. 
Strong, although be did not submit a minority report. 

The preamble was somewhat amended and enlarged, but 
the resolutions were adopted substantially as reported, and 
the following is a copy of them, as approved by the Gov- 
ernor on the 18th of February: 

"Resolved, That in the opinion of the Legislative Assembly, the said bonds or certificates 
of Steele numbered from 1 to 30 inclusive, and from 33 to ."JG inclusive fur $1,000 each, and 
being on interest of seven per cent, per annum are null and void; and that tliere is not, nor 
can be any obligation, either legal or equitable, resting upon the territorial government, 
to reimbm-se the amount of said bonds or certificates, or any part thereof. 

" Resolved, That the bonds numbered from 57 to lOO, both inclusive, are hereby declared 
to be null and void. 

" Resolved further, Tliat the Governor of the Territoi-y be requested to take such meas- 
ures as may be deemed expedient to recover possession of the bonds for $100,000, dated 
March 15, 1841, and entru-ted to Byron Kilbourn, E.sq., by the late Governor of the Terri- 
tory, except bond numbered thirty-one for $1,000, which is hereby declared to be valid." 

Upon the passage of these resolutions in the Council, those 
w^ho voted in the affirmative were Messrs. Bullen, Brigham, 
Janes, Learned, Martin, Maxwell, Rountree, Tweedy, 
Upham and Collins (President). 

Mr. Strong voted in the negative. 

In the House the vote was 14 in the affirmative and 11 in 
the negative. 

These resolutions and some other measures adopted at the 
same session, which will presently be noticed, practically 
and effectually put a stop to all further work on the canal 
except such as was necessary to make the water power 
created by the dam and that part of the canal in the city of 
^Milwaukee available. 

The repudiating resolutions remained unrescinded for a 
period of more than six years. During that time one of the 
bonds had been paid, and the others surrendered and can- 
celed, except ten for $1,000 each, which remained unpaid 
and were held as a subsisting debt against the Territory. 

During the session of 18-48, Governor Dodge sent a com- 
munication to the House of Representatives under date of 
February loth in which he called the attention of the Legis- 



G30 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

lative Assembly to the repudiating resolutions in which he 
said : 

'■ Holding as I do the opinion that a great injustice is done by these resolutions, not only 
to the creditors, but to the good reputation for honor and integrity of the Territory, I feel 
impelled by a sense of justice to the former and a desire that the latter in changing her 
condition from a Territory to a State government, may enter the Union with her character 
untarnished by the stain of repudiation, to urge upon you the propriety of 'rescinding 
these resolutions and providing for the payment of the outstanding bonds of the Terri- 
tory, amounting in the whole to the sum of ten thousand dollars, exclusive of interest. 

* * * " It remains for you to say as the representatives of the peojjle of this Territory, 
•whether the State of Wisconsin shall enter the Union with the blot of repudiation on her 
escuteheonorwhether she shall take a high and noble position by the side of the highest 
and proudest states of the Union." 

The following joint resolution was adopted bv both 
houses : 

" That so much of the resolutions of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Wis- 
consin, passed February the eighteenth, A. D. 1842, as declares that certain bonds of 
which the ten now outstanding against the Territory are a part, are null and void, and that 
there is not nor can be any obligation either legal or equitable resting upon the Territorial 
government to reimbiu'se the amount of said bonds or certificates or any part thereof, be 
and the same are hereby rescinded." 

The vote upon the passage of this resolution in the Coun- 
cil was 1 1 to 2, and in the House it passed unanimously and 
was approved by the Governor March 11^ 1848. 

The other measures before referred to^ adopted at this 
session, were : 
Joint resolutions declaring : 

First. " That all connection of the Territory with the Milwaukee and Rock Kiver Canal 
Company ought to be henceforth dissolved; that all prosecution of the work of the canal 
by the Territory ought to be henceforth abandoned; that the Territory ought not further 
to proceed to execute the otifice of trustee imposed upon her by the act of Congress, ap- 
proved Jime .5, 1838. 

Second. " That the Congress of the United States be and is hereby requested to repeal 
so much of the said act of June 5, 1838, as directs the application of the fund and pre- 
scribes the conditions of the grant, and that the cession of the same land be made to the Ter- 
ritory upon the terms following, viz.: 

" That the minimum price of the even niunbered sections reser-\'ed by Congress be re- 
duced to $1.25 per ace. 

" That the odd numbered sections be made subject to the disposal of the Territory or 
future State of Wisconsin, for purposes of internal improvement, to be designated by the 
Territory, subject to the approval of Congress. 

" That no other conditions or restrictions be annexed to such grant, excepting that the 
Territory may be prohibited from selling any portion of said land at a price less than $1.25 
per acre. 

Third. " That if Congress shall decline to alter the act of cession so as to conform to the 
terms herein set forth, or to terms equally satisfactory, that Congress be and is hereby re- 
quested to repeal the act of June 5, 1838, unconditionally, and to sell and dispose of so much 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 631 

of the lands as shall by such repeal revert or be retroceded to Congress, in the same man- 
ner and upon the same terms as other public lands are sold by the government." 

Another of the measures was an aet by which all interest 
on purchases of the canal lands was remitto;! and discharged, 
except such small sum as might become necessary to pay 
interest on loans, and expenses of the same. 

The other measure referred to was an act by which the 
1st, Kith and 17th sections of the act of February 26, 1839, 
the 4th section of the act of January 11, 1840, and the 2d 
and od sections of the act of February 12, 1841, were re- 
pealed. 

These were the sections which authorized the issue of 
bonds and making loans, and contained all the authority of 
law for those purposes, and also authorized the application 
of the proceeds of the sales of canal lands, and of loans to 
the construction of the canal. 

In response to a resolution of the House of Representa- 
tives, Mr. KiLBOURN in behalf of the canal company said: 

'• The canal company are willing to surrender their right to construct the canal beyond 
the point where tlie line leaves the Milwaukee River, provided that the Legislature adopt 
such measures as will secure the construction of a I'ailroad through the same tract of 
country."' 

The communication containing this response presented 
the full details of a plan for effecting a change of object 
from a canal to a railroad. Nothing, however, was done in 
reference to it, except the adoption of the resolutions pre- 
viously quoted. 

At a meeting of both houses in joint convention on the 
18th of February, the following officers of the canal board 
were elected: 

Allen W. Hatch, Begister; Joshua Hathaway, Re- 
ceiver; Alvin Foster, Acting Commissioner. 

The second section of an act passed February 19, 1841, 
provided that if any purchaser of any tract of canal lands 
should not have filed a bond and mortgage within six 
months from the passage of that act, as required by the act 
of February 20, 1839, and should not make payment of the 
interest and principal moneys becoming due on such land, 
at the time when the same should become due, such pur- 
chaser should forfeit his right to such lands. 

At the session of 1843, an act was passed which repealed 



632 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

said second section of the act of 1841. It also repealed so 
much of any law as authorized any person to make appli- 
cation for the sale of any portion of the unsold canal lands, 
and such parts thereof as authorized the sale of any portion 
of said lands, by proclamation of the Governor or otherwise. 

In 1844, by an act passed January 2oth, the payment of 
all principal and interest due or to become due from pur- 
chasers of the canal lands was indefinitely postponed, and 
it was provided that no suit should be instituted for the 
same until suc)\ time as the Legislature should thereafter de- 
termine. 

And that all persons, whose lands on said canal grant had 
been sold for taxes and redeemed by the Territory, might 
pay to the receiver the amount which may have been paid 
for such redemption, with seven per cent, interest, and that 
such payment should defeat any title or claim of the Terri- 
tory to such lands. 

At the next session of the Legislative Assembly, by an 
act approved February 24, 1845, it was provided that so 
much of the canal lands as remained unsold at the passage 
of the act should be offered at public sale to the highest bid- 
der on the second Tuesday of April, 1846, at the minimum 
price of $1.25 per acre, to be paid on the day of sale in gold 
or silver coin, unless such sale should be thereafter prohib- 
ited by act of Congress. 

The public sales were to be continued from day to day, 
until all the lands had been offered for sale^ and all such as 
should remain unsold at the close of the public sale should 
be subject to entry on the sam.e terms as the public lands 
of the United States. 

The 6th section of the act provided that purchasers of 
lands theretofore sold might, if Congress should approve the 
act, avail themselves of it by paying on or before the first 
Monday of July, 1845, ten per cent, of the balance due on 
such lands, estimating the original purchase at $1.25 per 
acre, without interest, and by paying the remainder in the 
legal currency of the United States between the first Mon- 
day and the second Tuesday of April, 1846. 

The receiver was authorized and required to pay out of the 
moneys derived from the installments of ten per cent, to be 
paid by the first Monday of July, 1845, to sundry persons 
named in the act certain specified sums amounting to 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 633 

$1,644.25, and to the holder of canal bond "No. 31" the sum 
of $1,000, with interest to the day of such payment. 

All other moneys, paid into the hands of the receiver, were 
to be deposited by him in the bank of America in the city of 
New York, to the credit of the Territory, and to be drawn 
out only in such manner as the Legislative Assembly should 
thereafter direct. 

The 11th section contained this provision: 

"If Congress shall approve this act, then the foreeroing provisions shall be in full force, 
and the land shall be sold at the minimum price of $1 . 25 per acre. But if Congress does not 
disapprove, or shall fail to approve of this act, then the said lands shall be sold at the mini- 
mum price of $2.50 per acre, one half of such bid to be paid in cash on the day of sale." 

It also contained a provision for the security for payment 
of the balance by mortgage. 

Simultaneously with the passage of this act a memorial to 
Congress was adopted, requesting — 

"Congress to pass a law authorizing the Territory to effect a final settlement with the 
canul company, and to purchase the canal with aU its privileges, to be paid for out of the 
proceeds of the sale of the canal lands, and that the same may be granted to the Territory. 
That the canal lands, or the balance of the proceeds thereof, may be donated to the Terri- 
tory, to be appropriated to beneficial public uses." 

No action was taken by Congress on the subject. 

John White was elected Register, and David Merrill, 
Receiver of the canal lands. 

On the 12th of January, 184G, the register and receiver 
presented their report to the Legislative Assembly, showing 
that 158 of the 277 original purchasers of the canal lands 
had paid ten per cent, of the balance due on such lands by 
the 1st of July, 1845, amounting to $2,230.75, and that $50.83 
had been paid for the redemption of lands sold for taxes; 
total receipts, $2,281.58. That the receiver had paid to the 
several persons named in the act of February 24, 1845, the 
sum of $1,644.25, and the further sum of $155.62, for office 
fent, commissions and other claims; total payments, 
$1,799.87, leaving balance on hand of $481.71. 

John White was re-elected Register, and David Merrill, 
Receiver. 

On the 3d of March, 1840, the Legislative Assembly, by 
joint resolution, directed that the receiver of the canal lands 
should pay over to the Treasurer of the Territory all mon- 
eys which might arise from any sale of the canal lands, ex- 
cept the sum which should be required to defray the 



634 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

expenses of the sale. That such moneys should be liable for 
all debts due from the Territory. 

That the money so received be appropriated to the pay- 
ment of the expenses of holding the convention to form a 
constitution for the state of Wisconsin, and be paid out in 
such manner as the convention should provide. 

That the faith of the Territory and future State be 
pledged to repay to the canal fund the sum diverted, when- 
ever the same shall be required to be repaid for the purpose 
of executing the trust created by Congress in making the 
canal grant. 

A memorial to Congress was adopted at the same session 
calling the attention of Congress to the act of February 24, 
1 845, authorizing a sale of the canal lands at $1.25 per acre, 
provided the same should be approved by Congress, and to 
the condition of the settlers on the lands. This memorial 
however was no more effective in inducing congressional 
a ction on the subject than that of the previous year. 

The annual report of the Register and Receiver to the 
Legislative Assembly was presented in the Council on the 
11th of January, 1847. It stated that the public sales of the 
canal lands were opened on the first Tuesday in April, 1846, 
and continued for three days, when adjournments were had 
from time to time until the tenth day of November, when 
the last and final sale was had, continuing two days. 

That the quantity of land sold was 24,193 71-100 acres, all 
of which was sold at $2.50 per acre, of which $1.25 per acre 
was paid at the time of sale, except 831- acres of which the 
entire amount was paid and the unpaid portion was secured 
by mortgages. 

That the total amount of moneys paid to the Receiver on these sales, and on 

mortgages given to the Territory upon sales made prior to the act of 1845, was. $39, 074 04 
Amount paid for commissions, rents, printing and other expenses 1, 291 06 

Leaving a balance belonging to the Territory of $37, 782 98 

Amount paid to the Treasurer of the Territory 35,257 86 

Balance in the hands of the Eeceiver , $2, 525 12 



John White and David Merrill were re-elected register 
and receiver. 

An act was passed February 8, 1847, which provided that 
the register and receiver should cancel and release all 
mortgages executed in pursuance of the act of February 24, 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. G35 

1845, and that no mortgage should be required to be given 
by any purchaser under said act upon lands sold or to be 
sold. 

That upon the payment of $1.25 per acre, including pay- 
ments heretofore made, the register and receiver should 
deliver all j^atents issued on sales previously made, and that 
all mortgages executed under acts prior to the year 1845 
should be canceled and released. 

That the register and receiver should proceed to sell all 
the unsold canal lands agreeably to the act of 1845,, and 
that section seventeen of that act and so much of the act as 
relates to the prohibition of a sale by act of Congress be re- 
pealed. 

Another act was passed at tlie same session appropriating 
to John Anderson for work done under his contract in the 
construction of a dam across Milwaukee River, which sup- 
plied water for the canal in Milwaukee and created the 
water power, the sum of ten thousand dollars and in- 
terest thereon at the rate of seven per cent, per annum 
from the date of the respective estimates of the engineers 
of the Territory in charge of the work. 

The last session of the Legislative Assembly of the Terri- 
tory convened on the. 7th of February, 1848. On the 
twenty-fourth day of that month the annual report of the 
register and receiver was presented in the Council. 

It stated that a public sale of the unsold canal lands was 
commenced on the seventh day of June, 1847, and was con- 
tinued from day to day until all the lands were offered for 
sale, and that since the 15th of October the unsold lands 
have been subject to private entry. 

That since the commencement of the public sales, there 
had been sold in all 53,330.33 acres, and there remained un- 
sold 15,680 acres. 

That the balance in the hands of the receiver at last report was $i, 533 13 

Amount paid on sales and on mortgages 83, 38G 20 

§84,811 32 
Paid for commissions, expenses, etc $2, 634 52 

Paid t-o John Anderson 14, 489 35 

Paid in full for Territorial Bond No. 31 1,408 75 

Deposited with Treasurer of the Territory 57, 500 00 

76,033 62 

Balance in the hands of the receiver $8, 778 70 

That there remained due and unpaid on mortgages about $12,000 00 



636 HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY OF WISCONSIN. 

On the 9th of March, in joint convention, John White 
and David Merrill were re-elected register and receiver. 

A joint resohition was adopted requiring the receiver to 
pay the interest due on the ten canal bonds, which had been 
repudiated by the resolutions of February 18, 1842, and which 
were rescinded at this session, and providing for the pay- 
ment of future interest. 

Another resolution was also adopted, directing the register 
to ascertain the number and names of all persons who had 
purchased canal lands prior to January, 1847, and paid for 
the same a sum exceeding $1.25 per acre, which sum was to 
be refunded by the receiver. 

By an act approved March 11, 1848, the duties of the 
register were to be transferred to the Secretary of State, and 
those of the receiver to the State Treasurer of the State of 
Wisconsin, within ten days after the first Monday of Janu- 
ary, 1849, in case such officers should be elected and qualified. 

Appended to the State constitution, adopted February 1, 
1848, were resolutions to the effect that Congress so alter the 
provisions of the act of June 18, 1838, making the canal 
grant, that the odd numbered sections unsold might be 
held and disposed of as part of the 500,000 acres grant, and 
that the even numbered sections reserved by Congress be 
offered for sale by the United States for the same minimum 
price as other public lands of the United States. 

That Congress be requested to pass an act whereby the 
excess price over $1.25 per acre, which may have been paid 
by the purchasers of any of the even numbered sections 
which have been sold by the United States, be refunded to 
the owners thereof, or that they be allowed to enter any of 
the public lands to an amount equal in value to the excess 
so paid. 

By the act of Congress for the admission of the State of 
Wisconsin into the Union, approved May 29, 1848, the as- 
sent of Congress was given to these resolutions, and the 
acts of Congress referred to therein were amended so that 
the lands granted by the provisions of said acts, and the 
proceeds of said lands shall be held and disposed of by the 
State in the manner and for the purposes mentioned in said 
resolutions; provided, that the liabilities incurred by the 
Territorial government of Wisconsin under the land grant 
act of June 18, 1838, shall be paid and discharged by the 
State of Wisconsin. 



MILWAUKEE AND ROCK RIVER CANAL. 637 

No settlement between the canal company and the Terri- 
tory having been arrived at, although several attempts were 
made, those matters of difference, and the various other 
cognate subjects resulting from the canal grant and the at- 
tempt to utilize it, were left as a legacy to the State of 
Wisconsin, whose sovereign attributes as one of the States 
of the Union were now recognized by the Congress of the 
Nation. 



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